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HENRIETTE 




HENRIETTE 


FROM THE FRENCH 


LEON DE TINSEAU 

n 



BY 

ANNA D. PAGE 

i 


R 1 

FEB 1 1890 


6 3 


NEW YORK 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 
150 Worth Street, cor. Mission Place 







\ 

\ 


b 


Copyright, 1889, 

By John W. Lovell. 



OTHING is more an- 
noying than a closed door, 
when one wishes it was 
open. This wooden barrier 
seems to mock one ; its 
knots grin a smile full of 
irony; it becomes the like- 
ness of fatality, insurmount- 
able, impassable. 
r" Irritation becomes exaspera- 
tion, if the mortal, who finds this 
v ' catch of destiny across his route is, for 
some especial reason, in bad humor or hurried. 
On a certain day toward the end of May, 


4 


Heiiriette. 


1877, M. Lasserre was in both of these con- 
ditions. He was in bad humor because two 
days before he had been dismissed from his 
office of sous-prefet of Montescourt; he was 
hurried because, flying from the hateful sight 
of a triumphant successor, he must leave the 
city that same day. Lastly, the gate of the 
Post and Telegraph Office of Montescourt was 
closed because it was noon. At this hour, in 
a small city, all is silent ; all rest and eat, ex- 
cept those who wait upon others. 

For nearly five minutes M. Lasserre tapped 
with his bent fore-finger, a succession of quick 
blows, jerking with impatience, but curbed by 
the natural timidity of a man who has become 
of no importance. 

After all a gate is imposing. We know of 
audacious criminals who break open strong 
boxes, profane tabernacles, wrench from their 
hinges the doors of a queen’s chamber, but 
nobody that I know of, has ever seen a person 
break open a post-office gate, because, behind 
that dark board, sits enthroned the only king 
that the French respect now and that they will 
never be able to behead or proscribe, to wit: 
The Government. 


Henriette. 


5 


Persistence conquers everything. Soon 
steps are heard in the interior of the office, the 
gate slides and a second face equally as sullen 
appears at the opening, facing the other. The 
light perfume of onion floats through the air, 
at the same time a harsh voice inquires, 
“ What’s wanting? ” 

“A despatch for Paris — thirteen words — 
here are sixty-five centimes.” 

“Oh! it is you, Monsieur le sous-prefet!” 
exclaimed the Post Master, for it was himself 
in person. “ How is your health? ” 

“ I am no longer sous-prefet, and you know 
it. The proof is, that your velvet cap still 
shelters your cranium and that you do not in- 
vite me into the office as usual.. But it is all 
right. Meanwhile I am in a hurry and you 
were at the table.” 

“ Oh ! Monsieur le a thousand pardons, 

Monsieur Lasserre, how could you think it? — 
Do you intend to leave us? ” 

“ Do you advise me, I should like to know, 
to wait until my successor turns me into the 
street? I am discharged, I must go away; I 
leave to-night. Will you forward my letters to 
this address in Paris? ’ 


6 


Henriette. 


“Oh! monsieur,” exclaimed Father Godelin, 
moved at the sight of his misfortune; “these 
political changes are very much to be regret- 
ted!” 

“ You will see many other changes, I assure 
you ; I hope nothing unpleasant will happen to 
you. Au revoir, and who knows? We may 
meet again sooner than we think.” 

“ Believe me it will be with pleasure, mon- 
sieur. Meanwhile a pleasant journey and good 
health to you and your family.” 

Father Godelin was preparing to close the 
gate and rejoin his family, who were waiting 
at the table for him. Misfortunes never come 
singly. 

“ Pardon ! ” said a stranger who had been in 
the office several moments. “ Will you have 
the goodness to look and see if you have any 
letters for me? Here is my card.” . 

O horrors! upon the card he read: Le 
Count de Reygnac. 

There was not a single Montescurian, great 
or small, who had not known, for several days, 
the name of M. Lasserre’s successor, and the 
successor was no other than the Count de 
Reygnac, and he had heard the conversation 


He7iriette. 


7 


that had taken place! He had seen one of 
Montescourt’s public officials talking on good 
terms with the discharged magistrate, remov- 
ing his velvet cap and offering him his left 
hand — the right had been left at Crimea and 
the arm also. 

When Lasserre went out, throwing his “ Au 
revoir” like a menace, Godelin had replied 
“with pleasure,” which was no more nor less 
than blaming the new elections of the 16th of 
May, and wishing its political defeat. The 
good man’s fingers trembled, a cold perspira- 
tion gently oozed from his honest brow, and 
he was unable to find the box marked “ R” in 
the letters “left till called for.” 

At last he succeeded in finding it and gave 
the count a voluminous collection of papers 
and letters. As Gaston de Reygnac turned 
to leave, far from suspecting the agony he had 
caused by his presence, there came from be- 
hind him, across the wire work, a supplicating 
voice calling: “Monsieur le sous-prefet! ” 

The person to whom, for the first time in 
his life, this title was given, turned mechani- 
cally to see who spoke to him. He was alone 
in the office. 


8 


Henriette. 


“ M. le sous-prefet ! ” repeated Godelin 
nearly ready to faint. “Ah! it is true/’ said 
Reygnac smiling, “ it is I, I am not yet accus- 
tomed to it. What can I do for you, mon- 
sieur? ” 

“ I wish to explain my actions to you. 
There are some situations very embarrassing 
for an honest father of a family, but, monsieur, 

. I am not hostile to the government.” 

“ I do not quite understand what you wish 
to say to me,” replied Reygnac. “ Come to 
my office and see me one of these days ; we 
will talk together.” 

Five minutes later he was in his room at the 
“ Croix Blanche,” where he had located him- 
self, and the slight baggage that he brought with 
him, the rest to come later. Gaston looked 
over, his mail ; it consisted of about twenty 
letters, a large number of papers, and several 
bills. The letters came from his relatives and 
friends, from two or three beautiful women, to 
whom he had once been devoted, and from 
some creditors who congratulated him on the 
“lucrative position” he had obtained which 
was the same as to say, that they too hoped 
to reap the benefit of it. “Bah! Let them 


Henriette. 


9 


talk ! ” says Reygnac, shrugging his shoulders, 
“ Fools!” 

Among all these letters of different import, 
there was but one which he read entirely 
through, it was signed “ Raoul de Barjols ” 
and dated at the “ Sporting Club.” It com- 
menced thus: 

“Ah! Ah! my jolly fellow! You never in- 
formed us that you wished to save France. I 
do not blame you, in the least, for she needs 
it. But I know you too well, not to believe 
that the prospect of being useful at the same 
time to the elected, Gaston de Reygnac, is not 
absolutely indifferent to you ; you are, of 
course, perfectly right. Between us, you were 
too unlucky with the queen of spades, and too 
generous with the queen of hearts. Here you 
are until the 14th of October anyway, if the 
curtain drops on your next election (I advise 
you not to count upon it too much) you will 
lose very little by it. 

“As for myself, I am rejoiced to have you at 
Montescourt, my old companion. It is a lucky 
thing for us! As soon as the Grand Prix is 
run, you will see me appear in your office. I 
will make inquiries about your surroundings, 


IO 


Henriette. 


its electors, its candidates, as well as its heir- 
esses; the latter is a subject which I should 
advise you to study seriously, for governments 
change but dowries remain — sometimes.” 

The advertisements came from manufac- 
turers of uniforms, wine merchants from Bor- 
deaux and Champagne, and from traders of 
all kinds. 

As to the newspapers, they came from all 
parts of the county and its confines, generally 
mentioning Reygnac’s election, without any 
comments. But one of them commenced its 
leading article thus: “Until the 16th of May 
raises the king to the throne, it gives us a 
sous prefet who descended from the crusade. 
Behold, an official of the moral order designed 
in advance, but who will be some day uncere- 
moniously dismissed! ” 

For three columns this clever writer contin- 
ued in this amiable tone, accusing the Count 
de Reygnac, in plain words, of being a roue, a 
constant frequenter of clubs, a knight of the 
gaming table. They forgot to say, of course, 
that the red ribbon which decorated the breast 
of this dandy, concealed a hole made by a 
Prussian ball in 1870, 


Henriette. 


ii 


“ The devil! ” thought Gaston, reading the 
signature at the end of this vigorous lashing, 
“ Citizen Magalas loses no time, and to think 
that I am not allowed the satisfaction of pull- 
ing this scoundrel’s ears! Truly, it is a great 
thing to be an official personage! ” 

These philosophical reflections were inter- 
rupted by the entrance of a little old man 
wearing spectacles, who introduced himself as 
Erasme Lefevre, senior clerk of the sous-pre- 
fecture of Montescourt. 

“ Monsieur le sous-prefet,” said he, “ I have 
just learned of your arrival by an employe at 
the post office. I hastened to pay my respects 
and to place myself at your command.” 

“ Please be seated. Monsieur Lefevre. How 
long have you filled this office? ” 

“Nearly thirty years; that is to say, since 
the time I returned from Algiers with the 
Sergeant Major’s stripe.” 

“A good career, monsieur.” 

“ Long at least, but I sigh for my pension. 
The government, as we understand it, is no 
longer possible. To-day the sous-prefets no 
longer govern a district ; they pierce through 
it like a bullet ” 


12 


Henriette. 


“ Or they burst like a bomb, for example, 
M. Lasserre.” 

“ Yes, but others become prefets after three 
years’ time. That I wish you, monsieur.” 

“ Thanks. Meanwhile, when can I take 
possession of my new quarters? ” 

“At once ; the place is free, your predeces- 
sor left this morning.” 

“ Then I will go and settle myself there at 
once.” 

As Gaston was walking to his residence, es- 
corted by a boy from the hotel carrying his 
bag, they passed the person whom he had seen 
at the post office. 

It was the unfortunate Lasserre. Leaning 
upon his arm was a lady of modest appear- 
ance and dress, with eyes red from weeping, 
leading by the hand a small child. 

“ The late sous-prefet,” whispered Gaston’s 
companion, much amused at the meeting. 

Gaston, entirely new in politics, felt ill at 
ease in the presence of the couple whose ruin 
he had indirectly caused. 

He bowed as one bows to a wounded adver- 
sary in the field, but the husband and wife, 
apparently little touched by this considerate- 


Henriette. 


13 


ness, passed proudly by, without returning the 
salute of the conqueror. 

“Well! ” thought the new comer, “the day 
has commenced well. Lasserre and Magalas, 
two enemies already. Who knows how long a 
time it will take for me to make one friend? ” 


14 


Henriette. 


CHAPTER II. 

The building occupied by the sous-prefet 
of Montescourt is a large, square, uninviting 
house, situated at the rear of a well-turfed 
yard. An ordinary gate, very rarely painted, 
separates this prison from an irregular street, 
honored by the name of place. 

One enters this building by three doors of 
unequal size, opening into the middle and at 
each end of the edifice. The first is sur- 
mounted by a flag, often seditious, thanks to 
the wind and rain, and is used by the sous- 
prefet, his family, if he has one, and visitors 
when they come. The door on the left, with 
an explanatory inscription overhead, gives ac- 
cess to the office and private room of the head 
of the department. The third door leads to 
the kitchen and is used by the servants and 
tradespeople. 

Gaston de Reygnac asked at once to be 
shown to his own rooms. They ushered him 


Henriette. 


r 5 


into a large room on the first floor, hung with 
rose-colored paper and draped with cretonne 
once the same shade. The furniture was like 
that of a second-class country hotel. In the 
dressing room, which was nearly as large as the 
chamber, one saw little else but a basin painted 
in blue design, containing yet, like a legacy of 
hate, the residue of the last ablution of the 
Lasserres. Other relics no less inviting were 
on the floor, a toothless comb, boots worn out, 
a broken corset steel, a paper collar indis- 
creetly telling of the administrative perspira- 
tions of M. Lasserre. Another article badly 
worn lay upon the floor, which was stained in 
spots by soap suds. 

This offensive spectacle was still more forci- 
bly seen in an adjoining apartment, which had 
evidently been used for a sleeping room and 
play room for the young family. Broken toys, 
fragments of picture books, and brimless hats, 
littered the floor. In the centre of the room 
was an aquarium, which had probably been 
brought from the drawing room to be used as 
a plaything for the children, it contained the 
dead body of a gold fish, whose tarnished side 
was half out of the forbidding-looking water. 


Henriette . 


1 6 

Without doubt a young artist in embryo had 
washed his paint brushes there. But the gen- 
eral desolation shone forth nowhere more than 
in the kicthen, where the odor of stagnant 
greasy water floated yet, whilst the saucepans, 
stained with the menacing color of verdigris, 
breathed out terrible predictions. A broken 
salad bowl strengthened by a string, was cov- 
ered with the remains of the dressing which 
cheered the last repast of the Lasserres. 

From cellar to garret, with the exception 
of the drawing room, usually unoccupied, the 
house was in this state. It would need, at least, 
the work of three persons one week to render 
it habitable, and yet Reygnac wished to dine 
and sleep there that same evening; for this 
well-to-do Parisian anything was better than 
a small country hotel. 

Upon hearing his decision Lefevre threw his 
arms up and turned his dismayed face toward 
the wall. But soon this administrative person 
resumed his stolid expression. 

“It is impossible,” said he, “unless mon- 
sieur travels with all his household effects.” 

“ Why? ” asked Reygnac, “ is not the house 
furnished? ” 


Henriette. 


17 


“ To a certain extent, but the furniture does 
not include sheets, linen, crockery, silver or 
glass.” 

“ Like the legend of the toothpicks, one 
carries them in his beard,” thought Reygnac 
smiling. “Such confidence does us honor. 
Only my dear mother’s calculations will be up- 
set, for I shall need at the very least 1,000 
crowns for the first outlay.” The new sous- 
prefet of Montescourt was not disappointed. 
Thanks to Prosper, his valet, thanks still more 
to the landlord of the “ Croix Blanche,” upon 
whom large requisitions were made, the con- 
queror dined and slept in the enemy’s camp. 
H owever this preference given to a rival es- 
tablishment makes one enemy the more, in the 
person of the landlord of the “ Commerce,” 
who, hesitating until then, swears no more from 
that time only by the opposition. 

As he was gloomily eating his solitary meal, 
Gaston received a despatch on yellow paper. 
In place of words, he saw a series of four ci- 
phers. It was necessary to send for the in- 
dispensable Lefevre. With the aid of a little 
book which resembled a dictionary, Lefevre 

with an important air translated the mysteri- 

2 


i8 


Henriette. 


ous telegram. It was couched in these 
terms : 

“ Come to the prefecture to-morrow and 
bring me a report upon the candidates in your 
department, also upon the electoral situation.” 

“ At what hour does the first train leave for 
X -? ” asked Reygnac, as if it was the sim- 

plest thing in the world. 

“ At eight o’clock, monsieur. Do you wish 
me any longer? ” 

“ No, thanks, you may leave. I shall com- 
ply with the prefet’s summons, but I intend to 
return to-morrow evening. After to-morrow, 
we will work.” 

“Well!” said the young man when alone, 
“my chief takes things coolly. Yesterday at 
this hour, 1 dined at the club, afterward I have 
supper and then take a night train, and here I 
am. Now, he asks me to report on the elec- 
toral situation. Zounds! three days ago I 
should have been at a loss to have told even 
its geographical situation.” All at once Gas- 
ton spied a set of drawers labelled with these 
solemn titles: General Politics, Police Re- 
ports, Personal, Morals, Correspondence with 
the Prefecture, etc.” 


Henriette. 


*9 


“ Ah, to be sure,” thought he, “ I may pos- 
sibly find something inside.” He opens the 
drawer of “ Police Reports.” The first docu- 
ment, dated back several days, remarked the 
“unpleasant impression ” produced by the ru- 
mor of change in the department, and the 
“devotion of the population” to the present 
form of government, a little more and it would 
have gone as far as to predict barricading, and 
all the horrors of civil war, in the streets of 
Montescourt. It was signed “Bongrand, Su- 
perintendent of Police.” Just as Reygnac 
finished reading these sombre predictions M. 
Bongrand in person was ushered in. He was 
a man tall, and thin, with grizzly hair and an 
upright soldierly bearing; one recognized in 
him that devotion, at once ridiculous and sub- 
lime, which consisted of not using his own in- 
telligence in the service. It was to be seen, 
nevertheless, that in the present case, the sac- 
rifice was neither meritorious nor difficult. 
Bongrand made the required salute and re- 
mained standing, no persuasion could induce 
him to be seated. 

“ Monsieur le sous-prefet,” said he, “ I come 
to pay my respects and to take your orders.” 


20 


Henriette . 


“ I am very much obliged to you. What I 
wish to know first is your opinion upon the 
electoral situation of Montescourt.” 

The honest man raised his eyes to the ceil- 
ing as if one had asked him an impossible 
question. 

“ The change of office,’’ said he, “ has pro- 
duced a favorable impression upon the people.” 

“ Indeed!” said Reygnac. “Are you the 
person who wrote this, Monsieur Bongrand.” 

Without the slightest embarrassment the 
old sub-officer verified his signature at the close 
of the report and replied in the affirmative, 
with perfect tranquillity. 

“Then you no longer fear a riot? You did 
eight days ago, however, if I am to believe 
what you have written.” 

“ Monsieur Magalas said publicly in a cafe 
that the country would rise.” 

“ That’s all right, my good fellow,” said Rey- 
gnac, meanwhile having decided as to the 
value of the officer wlio stood before him. “ At 
present I have no more orders ; you may go.” 

“ Pardon, Monsieur le sous-prefet,” said 
Bongrand making a grand effort. “ I belong 
to the third class, and receive 1,800 francs 


Henriette. 


21 


salary, added to that, I have 40 or 50 francs, 
fees for disinterments. I am married, the 
father of a family. It costs dear to live in 
Montescourt.” 

“And you wish to be promoted? Very 
well, I will make a note of it. At present, I 
have work to do; we will talk together later 
on.” 

Bongrand had hardly left, when Prosper re- 
entered with a card — “ Boehmer, Lieutenant 
of the Gendarmes.” 

“ Good day, Monsieur le sous-prefet,” said 
the officer, in full dress, with a pronounced 
Alsatian accent, extending his large hand to 
the new functionary as if he had known him 
for years. “At last! you have arrived! I 
am anxious to have my instructions; I sup- 
pose that you have brought them. It is time 
to go to work. When shall we begin? ” 

“Instructions?” said Gaston somewhat as- 
tonished. “ I have none. Nobody has given 
me any. What the devil would you do? Fire 
upon the people? ” 

“ Now then, Monsieur de Reygnac, we know 
who you are. If the Minister sends us a man 
with your ideas and your name, it is not to 


22 


Henriette. 


continue in the footsteps of M. Lasserre. your 
predecessor. All the conservatives, and I de- 
clare to you that I am one of the number, ex- 
pect to see a change. Will you make a bet, 
that Magalas will not sleep at home to-night? ” 
“ Upon my honor, he will make a great mis- 
take, my dear lieutenant; I repeat it, we do 
not think of imprisoning anybody. We shall 
take no violent measures. Good gracious! 
how fast you go at it! ” 

“ I think you may confide in me, monsieur, 
my opinions are known to all Montescourt and 
elsewhere. The marshall can count upon me ; 
I have been ten years in service and when the 

elections are over ” 

“ You hope for the other shoulder strap? ” 
“To be sure! I have a large family, and a 
lieutenant’s pay hardly suffices in a city where 
the food is so dear.” 

“All alike! ” thought Gaston when he was 
alone. “The question that all these fellows 
understand best is their own advancement. 
But who comes now? ” 

It is Godelin, the postmaster; he wears a 
black coat, with an enormous cross which 
covers all one side of his breast. The bullet 


Henriette. 


2 3 


which carried away his right arm, left a por- 
tion of it, just sufficient to hold, pressed 
against his right arm-pit, a large gold-headed 
cane, when the left hand had other duties. 

“Monsieur le sous-prefet,” said he, “my 
wife is in delicate health, and I feared she 
would pass a sleepless night, if I did not clear 
myself in your eyes. You saw me talking 
with your predecessor ; that I did from duty, 
rest assured— I would do the like to you, 
should the same misfortune overtake you.” 

“ Granted in advance,” said Reygnac bow- 
ing. 

“ But,” continued Godelin, “ Monsieur le 
sous-prefet would be wrong to conclude by 
these marks of simple politeness, that I am 
not animated by a sincere devotion to the 
present politics; I left an arm in Crimea, and 
a good record in the regiment. You could 
never tarnish it. Monsieur, the father of a 
family with four children to maintain, four 
daughters — ” 

“Rest easy,” replied Gaston, who could 
hardly keep from laughing at hearing the same 
expressions used by the others, “ I understand 
the difficulties of certain positions. Go and 


24 


Henriette. 


reassure Madame Godelin and present my 
compliments to her; oh, by the way, you have 
not asked for a promotion? ” 

“No,” said the postmaster very gravely, 
“ I shall be pensioned off next year, and my 
removal will amount to more than my increase 
of salary ; all that I ask is to be let alone, but 
the government can count on me within the 
limits of my province.” 

Left to himself at last, the young official 
finished looking over the records left by his 
predecessor; it did not take long, for most of 
the drawers were empty, the ashes in the fire- 
place told what had become of their contents. 
Back of one, he found a yellowed paper which 
had slipped there by chance, without doubt. 
It was a love letter, not dated, simply signed 
with an initial. The style was touching in its 
simplicity, the spelling fair, but not irreproach- 
able, the ideas had an idyllic freshness. Was 
it Lasserre or another who had inspired in the 
romantic Montescurian this tender feeling? 

Alas! the postscript destroyed these illu- 
sions. He found a “Du Barry” in this 
“ Louise de la Valliere.” The postscript said: 
“ The roads which lead to our country home 


Henriette. 25 

are always full of ruts; one word from you 
and they will be smooth as garden paths. Say 
the word quickly ; I promise you many 
thanks.” 

With a sceptical smile Reygnac burned the 
letter in the flame of his candle. 

In Paris, thought he, presents support love, 
here, love mends the roads. 

With this unromantic reflection, Monsieur 
Reygnac went to bed. 


26 


Hennette . 



CHAPTER III. 

HE next morning at eleven 
o’clock, Gaston arrived at the 
county town. A few minutes 
later he was ushered into the pres- 
ence of his chief, by the door keeper. 
M. Petitot du Villars, prefet du , con- 

sidered that he had given proof of good taste 
in calling himself “ Monsieur du Villars,” and 
his wife did not take offence if, at a ball, 
some young supernumerary, impressed by her 
noble walk and majestic shoulders, called her 
“ Madame la Countess.” 

Petitot du Villars had the misfortune to be 
a creature of the Empire, a misfortune largely 
compensated for by the assistance of an intelli- 
gent wife. So the family prospered. The 4th 
of September found them in the sous-prefec- 
ture; the 16th of May, they were at the head 
of the department. They were not rich, far 
from it, but they had succeeded in a short 


Henriette . 


27 


time, in giving the prefecture the reputation 
of being a house where one could amuse 
one’s self. This made people, outside of poli- 
tics, bow down to them; hair-dressers, pastry 
cooks, milliners, and the unmarried young 
ladies, with all their families. 

“ Good day, my dear colleague,” said Vil- 
lars, affecting to ignore, in the intimacy be- 
tween Reygnac and himself, all superiority, 
“you are very good to have responded so 
quickly to my bidding. What do you think 
of Montescourt? ” 

“ It is an ugly city, eight hours’ ride from 
Paris; I suspect that it lies upon a river, as 
it seems to me that I crossed a bridge. One 
thing is sure, that they have a newspaper 
printed by a most disagreeable man. I arrived 
last evening ; I slept as well as one could upon 
a hard mattress. The three or four persons 
in office, that I have seen, seamed to be in 
perfect accord, each wished to be promoted.” 

“And you?” said the prefet laughing. 

“ I, oh, I deserved it. I am nominated sous- 
prefet without my ever having done anything. 
They owe me something, though, for the incon- 
venience I have undergone.” 


28 


Henriette. 


“ You are a new beginner in this career? ” 

“ As green as one possibly can be. It was 
my mother’s idea. I am twenty -nine years old ; 
I ride well, and I remember having passed 
my examination in law. I do not deny that 
I have committed many follies in my life, one 
of the greatest was whilst at Patay — I placed 
myself in such a position as to receive a ball 
which very nearly ended my days. I know 
how to spell. I am serious when I set about 
it, and I wish to begin to work, as much from 
duty as respect. As to my political opinions, 

I hasten to tell you that I am ” 

“ Oh ! my dear fellow, who cares what you 
are ? The essential thing is to know what you 
are not, and then, you are not required to pro- 
claim it from the house tops. It is fortunate 
that you came to me before speaking to any- 
body else. Upon my word! you would have 
commenced with a profession of faith; we are 
here to prevent that.” 

“ Meanwhile one must say something.” 

“It is well to speak the language of the 
times, for each new regime has its own vocab- 
ulary. All our authority is comprised in one 
word, we are the servants of the marshal. 


Henriette. 


2 9 


We uphold the politics and the government 
of the marshal. We must sustain the mar- 
shal’s candidates. With these three sentences 
you know as much as I, and you can get over 
the most difficult situations ; but if you swerve 
from that, you are lost. Now let me present 
you to Madame du Villars, who waits lunch 
for us.” 

“ But, monsieur, you have given me no in- 
structions.” 

“ You too! All my sous-prefets have asked 
for instructions; that is all that they say. 
What would you do with my instructions? 
Did you never read the story of a soldier who 
cried out in the midst of a battle, ‘ I have 
taken a prisoner, but he will not come with 
me.’ Are you sure that you will be able to 
make them follow my instructions? ” 

“Well! one can always try.” 

“ My dear fellow, the Government is like a 
theatre. Show the public a painted canvass 
and say to them, ‘ They are murdering some- 
one behind there.’ 4 Here is an earthquake.’ 
Be serious, bend your head, have the air of 
being filled with mysterious orders, and every- 
body will say, 4 These people know what they 


3 ° 


Henriette. 


are about ! ’ This is the essential thing. As 
for the rest, come what may ! ” 

“ That is what they call singing ‘ la Bene- 
diction des Poignards ’ to the air of ‘ Every- 
body for himself and God for all.’ ” 

“You have hit it; some other day we will 
talk more seriously. Now let us go to lunch- 
eon.” 

“Willingly,” replied Reygnac; “but you 
asked me to tell you of the electoral situa- 
tion.” 

“ I asked you to come that people might 
know that you had arrived; when you return 
to-night you will be supposed to have your 
pockets full of documents; after all, as intel- 
ligent as you are, I should not be surprised if 
you already had something of importance to 
tell me. That will come later ; meanwhile, let 
us join my wife.” 

On the garden steps sat Madame du Villars, 
reading the Figaro. A lady about forty 
years old, very fashionable, and agreeable 
enough when she thought it useful to please. 
Not pretty enough to give umbrage to the 
County beauties. Her father was Councillor 
of State under the Empire. He was conspic- 


Henriette. 


3i 


uous for issuing certain decrees which the 
Chancellor of Lamoignon did not sign. I un- 
derstand her mother was a beauty of the sec- 
ond class, a devoted, if not a faithful wife, 
and had been the means of her husband be- 
coming President of the section and various 
other posts of honor, but, says the chronicle, 
she did not make him rich, thanks to her 
pronounced taste for dress and display. Ac- 
cordingly their young daughter Sidonie had for 
her dowry only her good name, a certain 
knowledge of the world, and a real talent for 
.the comedy of social life. She was praised 
more than once at Fontainebleau or at Com- 
piegne. 

All these advantages had, at twenty-five 
years of age, procured for her only ball part- 
ners. In the winter of 1869, an illustrious 
personage promised the gold-headed cane of 
a sous-prefecture of the first class to the one 
who gathered her from under a crown of orange 
blossoms. From that moment people sought 
this Atlanta, and Lent was hardly ended when 
the young Petitot du Villars, head clerk in 
the office of a prefecture in the Antipodes, 
put on for the first time a beautiful silver em- 


32 


Henriette. 


broidered coat in a pretty village, three hours’ 
ride from Paris, after the preliminary formal- 
ities commanded by Sidonie’s patron. Du 
Villars was not unknown; already they spoke 
of him for a better position, when the 4th of 
September came and took away this position, 
which they had forgotten to guarantee in the 
contract. 

The next day the family disappeared as sud- 
denly as into a trap. You might have found 
them with very little trouble, wandering from 
uncle to cousin, lunching upon the friendship 
of one, dining upon the pity of others, which 
is no way to get rich. Successively the old 
sous-prefet tried journalism, farming, banking, 
and wine brokerage, struggling bravely against 
the hardships of fate and debts. During this 
time his wife was on the road to Paris in a 
cab, oftener in an omnibus, to cultivate her 
acquaintances — a culture in which a young 
woman who is good-looking risks a great deal. 

How she managed it is a question which 
concerns only her husband. What is certain 
is, that he was one of the first batch to furnish 
prefets the 16th of May, and that the depart- 
ment of was given to a man full of experi- 


Henriette. 


33 


ence, devoid of prejudice and married to a 
superior woman; I know of more than one 
out of these forty-five or forty-six departments, 
that did not have a similar chance. 

The time when Madame du Villars rode in 
an omnibus had passed. In a few days she 
was given pretty dresses, a fine house, a well- 
kept coupe and had the appearance of a rich 
woman. 

All this for 25,000 francs! The hardest 
part was to wait until the end of the first 
month for the 2,500 francs salary which this 
lucky day ought to bring them. 

In the present state of civilization some will 
give you, on account of your duties, or title, a 
pair of horses on credit, who would laugh you 
in the face if you tried to borrow five louis. 

Assuredly, Reygnac, well aware of the diffi- 
culties of certain positions, never suspected 
that the elegant lady who offered him her 
hand in such a friendly manner, had been, 
that same morning, in a cold perspiration 
whilst casting her eyes over the cook’s account 
book. Nothing could be fresher, prettier, or 
more restful than this charming lady, with 
her handsome gown, pretty slippers, and well- 


34 


Henriette. 


dressed hair, comfortably seated in the inevit- 
able gilded arm-chair, covered with red damask, 
a little worn on the seams. 

“ At last! ” exclaimed she merrily, “you are 
here! You are the only one of the sous-pre- 
fets that I do not know yet, and the one that 
I wish to know the most.” 

“O madame,” said Gaston, “what would 
my colleagues say if they heard you? ” 

“ Bah ! they would say nothing, they are good 
fellows, good officers, so my husband says, 
but common people, like my gardener. And 
then they are all married! I am certain to 
never see them. So, I count upon you to fill 
all of their places; you will have your room 
here, and will come here to amuse yourself 
when you are tired of Montescourt, that is to 
say, at any time. I warn you that I am the 
one who will give the minister reports concern- 
ing you; therefore, be agreeable and make 
love to me a little when we are in company.” 

“ And when there is nobody around? ” 

“ Then we will talk quietly like good friends. 
We will become Parisians again. In the pres- 
ence of our superior officers we must become 
provincial in the extreme.” 


Henriette. 


35 


“ Madame, lunch is served,” announced at 
that moment a most correct butler. 

“ Let us go,” said Madame du Villars rising 
from her chair. Taking Reygnac’s arm, she 
said in a low voice, “ Do not speak of poli- 
tics before Basil. We hired him from my hus- 
band’s predecessor and suspect him of carrying 
reports to the Liberal newspapers of this 
place.” 

The luncheon was more attractive than sub- 
stantial ; elegantly served, and called to mind 
similar repasts which the economy of the 
present time had put in fashion under the 
pretext of gentility, in the newly-born fashion- 
able society at the capital. Fresh eggs, chops, 
asparagus, two cups of tea and plenty of 
flowers. 

The conversation was to the mind what the 
menu was to the stomach — an unsubstantial 
living for want of better. They talked of the 
closed theatres, of the reopened music halls, 
the races, of good society and bad. Du Vil- 
lars talked little and ate less. He took, when 
seated at the tabel, a package of powders, ate 
without appetite, like a man attacked with 
gastralgia; Sidonie looked after him, like a 


36 


Henrietta. 


wife who loved her husband, and knew that 
she lost her rights to an annuity if he died 
before his time. This astonishing woman 
knew everything, or at least could talk on all 
subjects, using expressions rarely original, but 
always witty. As for Gaston, he could hardly 
realize where he was. The 16th of May, the 
elections, the sous-prefecture of Montescourt, 
all seemed like a dream. 

As to Madame du Villars, she looked like 
twenty-five different ladies with whom he had 
eaten fresh eggs and listened to their gossip. 
He really enjoyed himself, for his wit and 
animation were not yet dampened and con- 
gealed by the country and government. He 
showed himself to be a brilliant talker. 

After luncheon, the prefet retired to his 
office to attend to an urgent despatch. His 
wife and Reygnac seated themselves on the 
veranda, she lazily stretched out in a large 
rolling chair, he upon a camp stool in front 
of her. Sidonie took a cigarette, made him 
light one, and without hesitation said, “ Mon- 
sieur de Reygnac, you are a charming man.” 

“ I, madame ! ” replied he bowing, “ But ” — 

“ Yes,” continued she, “ charming. You are 


Hetiriette. 


37 


witty, with a natural elegance, a talent for en- 
tertaining ladies. You are an accomplished 
gentleman; I believe, too, that you have a 
substantial education. Only I wonder how it 
ever happened that the office of sous-prefet 
was offered to you and that you accepted it.” 

“ Mon Dieu, madame,” responded Reygnac, 
a little surprised at the compliment, “ between 
us, I asked for it, or rather I should say that 
the whole thing was done without me ; I ought 

to tell you that my mother ” 

“Oh! f know, the Countess de Reygnac 
has a most practical mind and unerring pene- 
tration. She knows that idleness is the mother 
of vice ; that nobody plays baccarat at Mon- 
tescourt; that the fashionable ladies are re- 
markable for their ugliness, the others by their 
absence. In short, thanks to your relatives, 
thanks to the powerful influence of friendship, 
your mother is welcome to the Elysee. She 
has only to say the word to put you into the 
Bastile, or in other words, to send you to 
Montescourt; this is true, is it not? ” 

“Zounds! madame,” said Reygnac a little 
piqued, “you are complimentary! You are 
well informed about me and my family.” 


38 


Henriette. 


“Do I receive you any the worse for that? 
Yes, it is true, I have informed myself, and 
make no mystery of it. I am of the old 
school, and I know my business. They should 
have told you of it.” 

“ Pardon me, madame, I did not know until 
I came here, whether my chief was married or 
not.” 

“ Decidedly, you lack experience. Thank 
God ! that he has given you a prefet who will 
look after your political education, very much 
neglected until now. Without impertinence 
I ask, what did you expect to do? ” 

“Well, madame, to become prefet as soon 
as possible. I have commenced work seri- 
ously. I shall work hard and if I go out with 
honor from the present enterprise ” 

“Ah! you have come to that. You! A 
prefet of the third Restoration; that is the 
height of your ambition? Ah, fie, Monsieur 
le Count, is it a fact, that your mother’s son is 
a candid man? ” 

“ If I have accepted a government office, it 
was not with the expectation of becoming 
admiral some day.” 

“ That is wrong, for you will be an admiral 


Henriette. 


39 


before a Prefet. If I were in your place, I 
should not regard it as far distant. There are 
heiresses in your county, and I know of one 
whose guardian will soon have need of you.” 

Just then, Basil appeared with a card upon 
a tray. 

“ I will receive him,” said Madame du Vil- 
lars, throwing away her cigarette. At the 
same time she struck the attitude of a great 
lady who sits for her portrait, and instantane- 
ously disguised her Parisian face, which speaks 
with the eyes, nose and all, and assumed the 
impenetrable mask of a political woman. 

Basil announced: 

“ Monsieur le commandant Martinval.” 

This person made his appearance, rigid, 
important, and solemn. One could never im- 
agine a face less military-looking than the 
commandant’s. He would have been easily 
taken for a retired merchant ; one would have 
been only half in the wrong. Martinval, for- 
merly assistant to a steward, had resigned 
to marry the daughter of a very wealthy 
tradesman. He had formerly commanded the 
Militia, and did that very well, that is, with- 
out losing a man, only by sickness. As his 


4 © 


Henrietta. 


name was popular in the surrounding district, 
it was the one proposed as candidate of the 
moral order at the coming elections. 

Madame du Villars presented the men to 
each other in a very dignified manner. 

* “Ah! Ah! Monsieur le sous-prefet,” said 
Martinval, examining Reygnac as a general 
would a new recruit, “ it is you, then, who go 
to fight for the good cause at Montescourt? ” 

Reygnac, profiting already by the advice 
and example of his clever mentor, assumed a 
profound air, which was far from becoming, 
and replied: 

“ Monsieur, in the struggle which is prepar- 
ing, we ourselves, political servants, point the 
cannons, but it is the local influence which 
charges them.” 

“Bravo!” cried Martinval. “That is very 
well said and I congratulate Montescourt. 
You express capitally what I said yesterday to 
madame. To discriminate and select local 
influence. It all lies in a nut-shell. But on this 
matter, what are the views of our minister? ” 

Gaston was not acquainted with the minis- 
ter, having merely met him on the sidewalk 
in the streets on Monceau, and Madame du 


Henriette. 


4 * 


Villars suspected it, so much so, that she felt 
uneasy. Happily Gaston, who was not a fool, 
answered very gravely : 

“ Monsieur, the minister meditates ; he 
studies. He is a very intelligent man, and 
one who, with his very tranquil air — will as- 
tonish people ; I am sorry that I am not per- 
mitted to say more ” 

“No, hang it! be discreet; you would be a 
fool to divulge your plans in advance. As for 
ourselves, we will march like old soldiers with- 
out asking where we are to go, meanwhile we 
half guess it. How is our dear marshal? ” 

“Very well, I thank you, although I found 
him looking very tired the other day, when I 
saw him on horseback in the Bois.” 

“The devil!” said Martinval. “ He works 
too hard. There is a man that I admire, 
monsieur. If he had many friends as devoted 
as I! Did he speak to you of the projects 
which busy me, or at least of those that busy 
themselves for me? ” 

Madame du Villars thought it prudent to 
interrupt. 

“ Only think, my dear commandant, would 
you believe that our young associate comes 


42 


Henriette. 


here without being minutely informed about 
our candidates? Just as you came in, he was 
getting ready to go to your house, to assure 
you of his interest in your success, and of the 
part that he intends to take.” 

‘ Do not trouble yourself,” said Martinval, 
“ I consider your visit as paid, and shall not 
forget you, if I attain the office, as I hope, 
provided our prefet shows intelligence, for one 
must take into consideration here a certain 
number of manufactories, where the hostile 
element is large. We must lead these fellows 
with a high hand. Repeat this to your hus- 
band, my dear madame.” 

“ And what do you think of Montescourt? ” 
asked Reygnac. 

“ Oh ! that is very different. There it is the 
peasants who hold the rope. Loidreau is a 
lucky fellow, all the more as he knows where 
to get the 40,000 francs for his election.” 

“A large fortune, then? ” asked the young 
man, who heard for the first time the name of 
his future candidate. 

“ For his part, he has not a sou, but he is 
the guardian of a nephew and niece, who have 
about ten millions.” 


Henriette. 


43 


Madame du Villars glanced quickly at Gas- 
ton, as much as to say, “ Listen, it will be 
worth your while/’ 

“You have not been to Fresnau yet? ” con- 
tinued Martinval. 

“ My dear commandant,” remarked Sidonie, 
“our young sous-prefet has been at his post 
only twenty-four hours, but it will be good 
fortune for him to be told about his deputy, 
by a man who knows him as well as you do.” 

“Ah! yes, I know him! The real Loid- 
reau, late Justice of Peace, had a younger 
brother, who left here for Paris when very 
young. They say that he had only three 
francs in his pocket; it is very likely; one 
thing is sure, that he carried his trowel on his 
back, and with that trowel he built two or 
three bridges, a theatre, a hospital, and a good 
share of the Boulevard Haussmann.” 

“ I believe that he worked also on his own 
accord,” said Sidonie. 

“ Certainly. The hotel at the corner of 
Avenue de Messine is his, or at least his chil- 
dren’s, besides, he bought Fresnau, after having 
married out of gratitude the daughter of the 
architect who first started him in the world, 


44 


Henriette. 


and who died without a fortune; for this Na- 
poleon Loidreau was a worthy man. Henriette 
was born a year after; she is twenty to-day. 
Everything went smoothly for these people, 
until the poor contractor died suddenly in 1874. 
This was the commencement of their mis- 
fortunes. His wife pined away with grief, and 
to hasten the end, she was in a delicate con- 
dition after an interval of sixteen years. The 
doctors sent her to Cannes with her daughter, 
but she took the fancy, a sick woman’s whim ? 
like Rachel, to go to Cairo. More fortunate 
than the great tragedienne, she returned from 
there the next year, cured, and the mother of 
a little boy, as pretty as a cupid. When I say 
that she was cured, one must understand that 
physically she was well, but mentally a perfect 
wreck. She raved more and more every day, 
until at last they were obliged to put her into 
an asylum.’ 

“ Poor creature said Madame du Villars, 
“she was an excellent and very agreeable 
lady ; I saw her often in Paris before the war. 
Her husband was one of the most intelligent 
members of the Majority. They entertained 
a great deal.” 


Henriette. 


45 


“ During this time,” resumed Martinval, 
“his elder brother continued to be Justice of 
Peace, he lost his place the 4th of September, 
and opened, in order to make a living, a law- 
yer’s office in Montescourt, for he was proud 
and would not ask a penny from his brother. 
When the brother died, the late Justice of 
Peace presented himself to the electors, and 
such was the influence of his younger brother, 
that he was chosen at once — upon the sole 
name of Loidreau; after which he installed 
himself at Fresnau with his two wards. So 
that, having no money himself, nor any from 
his wife, he supports the style of a man who 
has 400,000 francs income.” 

“ His niece is the best match in the county,” 
affirmed Sidonie, wishing to make Martinval 
talk of her. 

“ I agree with you, she is a superb creature 
too, only she does not look as if she was good- 
tempered, and it is not often that one sees her 
laugh, which is easily understood. She has 
already refused many fine offers; to speak 
plainly she is in no hurry to marry, for she 
is sure never to be an old maid unless she 
wishes,” 


46 


Henriette. 


Martinval left; Reygnac laughingly said to 
Madame du Villars : “A singular conversation ! 
I must prepare myself to take notes for my 
report to the Minister. I have learned only 
one thing, thanks to you, and that is, that our* 
candidate is the uncle of a pretty girl who 
has a handsome fortune.” 

“ My dear sous-prefet, if you can help to 
nominate Loidreau, it will be a great thing for 
you, but if you marry his niece it will be still 
better. Now, go and fight for the good cause, 
as Martinval said. Only while we are alone, 
let me repeat to you the words of a Belgian 
Captain of Police, addressing his men just as 
they were about to attack a mob: “Think 
that the country has its eye upon you, but do 
not forget that your horse belongs tp yourself.” 


Henriette. 


47 


CHAPTER IV. 

The next morning L^fevre entered his 
chief’s office and announced that a certain 
number of commercial men from Montescourt 
wished to see him. 

“ Do you know what they want? If it is to 
talk of protection or free exchange, they come 
a little too early, for I tell you frankly.” 

“ Oh ! h giggled Lefevre, “ they come about 
more practical questions. These gentlemen 
simply come to ask the trade of the sous-pre- 
fecture for provisions.” 

“ But my cook will arrange all that, when I 
find time to get one ; send them away.” 

“ Allow me to advise you not to do it. It 
is a more important thing than you imagine 
and somewhat more difficult. At Montescourt 
they are very suspicious, and more than one 
magistrate has comprised himself at the out- 
set, by treating the trades-people lightly.” 

“ All right,” said Reygnac with resignation, 

“let them come in,” 


4 8 


He?iriette. 


Then the march commenced; the butcher 
from Grand Rue, the first in the city, made 
known that since the fall of the Empire, all 
the sous-prefets had purchased their meats of 
him. He insinuated that, in not doing so, the 
new functionary would expose himself to the 
double danger, of alarming all the political 
party, and of eating second-class beefsteak. 

“ I have seen in the ante-chamber,” added 
he, “one of my rivals who comes, doubtless, 
for the same purpose that I do. Permit me 
to warn you, monsieur, that this man is clerical 
and reactionary, notwithstanding that he kills 
only half an ox a week.” 

“The dickens!” said Reygnac astounded; 
“ would it be indiscreet to ask what becomes 
of the other half ? ” 

“ It is a form of speech of our party. One 
kills the half of an animal, when he is in part- 
nership with a fellow who takes the other half 
for his shop. Houses of little importance are 
reduced to that in small cities.” 

“ I am Ringuenoire, the butcher, from rue 
de l’Eglise,” said the second candidate, intro- 
duced in his turn ; “ my store is not as mag- 
nificent as Prunier’s I know, but perhaps my 


Henriette. 


49 


mutton is as good as his ; his shop is substan- 
tial, it would be bad taste to deny it, only he 
is a thorough radical. He takes the Demo- 
crat and is one of the electoral agents of M. 
Magalas. To whom do you think the new 
Government will be conservative if the sous- 
prefecture continues to patronize this store? 
I, monsieur, furnish all the neighboring man- 
sions, the priests, and all that there is of mod- 
eration in the Municipal Council; I send my 
son to the Brothers’ school, and you may count 
upon me election day.” 

Reygnac replied that he would study the 
question with all the care it merited, and dis- 
missed Ringuenoire, who departed after leav- 
ing his price list. Before going home he ap- 
peared once more to say, “When Monsieur 
le Sous-Prefet wishes a calf’s head, he shall 
have it in preference to everybody, only letting 
me know the night before.” 

Exasperated by these interruptions, the un- 
happy Gaston prepared to lock the door, but 
Lefevre, having had experience, begged him to 
hold out to the end. “ Believe me,” said he, 
“ it will not be lost time ; before night these 
men will have gone through the entire city, 


5 ° 


Hefiriette. 


and your reputation will be made in one sense 
or the other.” 

This little reception then continued. After 
the butchers came successively, grocers, 
bakers, wine merchants, all dressed in their 
Sunday cloth'es, cleanly shaved. One said, “ he 
had a Mexican medal,” another that “his 
pastry cook came from Noumea.” A third 
that “his wife was first cousin to Madame 
Loidreau.” As to the two wine merchants, 
the first, who made his own wine, had shaken 
hands with a great man one day at Cahors. 
The second furnished wine to the clergy of 
that county to be used at mass, and had a 
son who was treasurer in the Ecclesiastical 
Seminary. 

It was like this until eleven o’clock. At 
this moment, Gaston, worn out and distracted 
with fatigue, realized for the first time the task 
he had undertaken, and asked himself if he 
had not better take the return train for Paris. 
He was reminded that he had just time to put 
on his uniform for the official reception to be 
held. 

Here, the list was different. Those whose 
daily bread was at stake, and who knew noth- 


He?iriette . 


5i 


ing of politics, hesitatingly advanced toward 
the mantel, were Gaston stood playing with 
the tassels of his scarf. You would have said 
that they were a band of raw recruits fresh 
from fighting in the woods, and scenting the 
air to know from which side the gunshots 
came. They bowed to the ground, and when 
they reached the door, went out without having 
raised their eyes to their new chief. 

Some of them, already, noted for their reac- 
tionary opinions, proceeded to burn their ves- 
sels, and to risk a declaration of their devotion 
to the “marshal’s politics.” 

Still the procession continued; groups of 
five or six persons successively made their en- 
trance, and like the ballet in an opera, de- 
scended toward the foot-lights, whilst the voice 
of the porter— transformed into an usher, an- 
nounced them in turns. 

The tax collectors, inspectors of highways, 
the justice of peace and his clerk, also the 
professors from the college. At Montescourt 
no troublesome rule of precedence impeded 
receptions of this kind. They went in as soon 
as they arrived and nobody thought of raising 
any objections. 


52 


Henriette. 


Reygnac was doomed to a feat of veritable 
skill, for he had to guess all the qualifications 
proclaimed at the door, and to improvise, with- 
out interruption, pleasant phrases adapted to 
the occupation of each. You would have 
thought that he had been aided by the perusal 
of an encyclopaedia. After having asked the 
primary inspector as to the number among the 
enlisted who knew how to read, he asked the 
physician about the children supported by 
local means and their nurses, of the general 
protector of the forests about the dogs who 
were running rampant through the place. 
People found in general that he was conversant 
with the ways of the world. 

So far, all went well, but it was noised about 
that Magalas was coming, at the head of the 
Minority Council, to protest against the late 
occurrences, but whether the report was false 
or the fierce patriot changed his mind — if he 
protested, it was by his absence. 

After a late and hurried luncheon, Gaston 
threw himself into the only barouche that was 
to be hired in the place, and gaye himself 
up to returning the calls that he had missed. 
Until six o’clock in the evening he left cards, 


Henriette. 


53 

shook hands and heard the same questions 
asked for the fiftieth time. 

“Well, Monsieur le Sous-Prefet, do you 
think that you are going to like Montes- 
court?” 

Now and then some comical incident broke 
the tiresome monotony of his visits. A city 
councillor, who was a baker, received him in 
his working costume, his chest naked like an 
Indian Fakir. A judge of the Tribune, who 
was exceedingly near-sighted, did not recog- 
nize him without his uniform, and took him 
for a commercial traveller selling Provence 
oils. Finally when Reygnac called, in conse- 
quence of a regrettable misunderstanding, at 
the door of the Registrar of Mortgages, he 
passed the parish priest coming from admin- 
istering extreme unction to this person, who 
died whilst the visitor left his card. 

From which this witty joke appeared in 
the next number of the Democrat , and was 
called very bright, even by those who did not 
partake of the political principles of Magalas. 

“ The new sous-prefet of the moral order 
did not succeed in bringing good luck to the 
conservatives of Montescourt.” 


54 


Heiiriette. 


Having paid all his visits and wishing to do 
something useful, Gaston seated himself in 
his arm chair and, calling Lefevre, told him he 
wished — without losing a moment’s time — to 
begin at once the study of administrative 
affairs. Smiling behind his gold glasses, Lefe- 
vre left she room, returning soon bending 
under the weight of a pile of documents. 

“ If you wish to rely upon my judgment, ” 
said he, “ we will begin with the most urgent 
in election time, applications for licenses to 
open liquor saloons.” 

“ Why not call them all simply wine-shops? ” 
asked the young beginner. 

‘‘That would not be statesmanship. We 
must not use expressions like everybody else 
— a road, a cure, a cemetery, a drunkard. In 
using longer expressions and less known, 
we assert our prestige. We express the same 
ideas by this turn of the sentences — a road 
of communication, a minister of religion, a 
field of interment, an individual in a state of 
intoxication.” 

Reygnac was on the point of asking his 
secretary how he would express idiotic in 
administrative terms, but he refrained. 


Henriette. 


55 


“ I should prefer to commence with other 
things,” said he ; “ you ought to have some 
bridge to construct, some school to reestablish, 
or some paupers to keep from starving.” 

“ Monsieur,” said Lefevre gravely, “ one 
tavern-keeper rightly thinking — that is — as we 
do, will gain more votes in a Sunday than 
twelve school-masters would in a year ; but if 
I was in your place, I know very well what I 
should do ; I should let business rest and go 
to Fresnau. What is the use of pleasing the 
whole district, if the deputy is dissatisfied with 
you? ” 

“Upon my faith! you are right. Take 
away all these papers. To-morrow I will go 
to see Monsieur Loidreau.” 

Probably this hardened Parisian would have 
yielded less quickly, if he had not thought that 
in calling upon Loidreau he had a chance of 
seeing the beautiful Henriette. 

During three whole days his eyes had not 
been delighted by the sight of but one pretty 
woman. The next after, he left for Fresnau 
in the famous barouche. 


5 6 


Henriette . 


CHAPTER Y. 


-A 

( 

// 


III * ^ 


r 




^RESNAU is a beautiful dwell- 
ing, nearly new, of 
square shape with a 
wing on each side, 
slightly jutting forward. 
The mansard roof is covered with 
slate and on each end has light- 
ning conductors, like those of a country house. 
It corresponded in all its parts to the style of 
houses built by hundreds in a dozen places 
near Paris, alike uninviting and commodious. 
A complete description of the style of the archi- 
tecture of the second empire. Hot water 
pipes heated the whole house, at the top of 
which was a reservoir of water supplied by a 
steam engine. At six hundred feet from the 
house, concealed by a massive wall, stood the 
stable and carriage house. The park, contain- 
ing about one hundred and fifty acres, crossed 
by a river, is kept like the woods of Boulogne, 


Heiiriette . 


57 


which it resembles, picturesque and tiresome. 
One found there conservatories, bathing, 
pheasants, and waterfalls. One looked in vain 
for a spot two hundred feet square where one 
could escape this excess of the beautiful, which 
seemed to nudge one to say, “Look at me! ” 
Without going away from his own home, Na- 
poleon Loidreau could hunt, fish, sail boats 
and gather pine-apples. He had collected 
everything — he had foreseen all save death, 
who had crushed him one night, as he lay in 
his own chamber, under red damask curtains 
which cost fifty francs a yard. People spoke 
very little about him ; but still less of his wife, 
if possible, who was shut up in some Insane 
Asylum. 

One day, the former justice of peace had 
found himself, with one stroke of the wand, 
installed amidst these splendors, which he had 
admired formerly, as a grisette admires the 
shop windows. He lived in the midst of this 
luxury, after the fashion of Spanish monks, 
who pass their lives in a cathedral to watch 
over treasures which will never belong to them. 
But he consoled himself in thinking that his 
guardianship was not nearly finished. His 


Henriette. 


58 

niece Henriette was, to be sure, nearly of age. 
As to the young heir, he was only three years 
old, and at Loidreau’s age, eighteen years was 
a long bail. 

After driving for an hour, Reygnac’s 
barouche stopped before a gate, the exact 
copy of one in the Parc Monceau. The visitor 
sent in his card. With a profound bow the 
porter, wearing a red waistcoat — announced 
that Monsieur le Deputy was at home and 
opened the gates. Then, while the carriage 
drove up the long avenue, a telegraph wire 
which connected the porter’s lodge with the 
mansion, transmitted to the head of the house 
the name and title of the person he was to re- 
ceive (at this time, the telephone was hardly 
yet known). 

When Gaston was ushered into the library, 
which was finished in black oak and antique 
silver, he found Loidreau at work with his sec- 
retary, in the midst of a complete mise en scene. 

“ Leave us, Monsieur Perrin,” said the Dep- 
uty, advancing toward his guest with a majes- 
tic walk, and very solemnly extending his hand. 
“ Monsieur le Sous-Prefet,” articulated he in 
a nasal tone, “ I was expecting you.” The 


Henriette. 


59 


codnt trembled imperceptibly. This was not 
the way exactly that he was ordinarily received, 
even amongst deputies who had no need of 
him. 

But within three days he had learned many 
new things ! 

“ Monsieur,” replied he, with a slight smile, 
“ I thought that it was proper ■” 

“ At the same time necessary,” interrupted 
Loidreau smiling; “we have many things to 
talk over together, and as we are hurried for 
time, we will, if you say so> do away with all 
preliminaries. I will not say, monsieur, that 
I asked for your nomination, since I had not 
the honor of knowing you, but when consulted 
by the Minister, having no candidate in whom 
I was personally interested, I accepted you 
with pleasure, when I knew with whom I had 
to deal.” 

Gaston bowed. “ Accepted ” appeared to 
him at first a little hard, but the rest of the 
sentence was irreproachable. 

“ We will lose no time,” continued Loidreau, 
“ in considering what is being done in other 
parts of France. For us, France is Montes- 
court, “And the district Qf Montescourt is 


6o 


Henriette. 


your election,” said Reygnac, half satirically, 
half seriously. 

“ Certainly,” replied the Deputy with per- 
fect composure, “you have nothing against me 
personally, I think. We must have a candi- 
date; whether his name is Peter or John, what 
matters, so long as he wins? All admit that 
I shall succeed. Observe, monsieur, that a 
good number of your colleagues, less fortunate 
than yourself, have to struggle in spite of an 
acquired position. For you, the only point is 
to keep what you have. Let us, if you will, 
look over our forces and those of the enemy.” 

“Magalas!” said Reygnac laughing. 

“Yes, Magalas. You know already person- 
ally what one may expect from the courtesy 
of this person. He is an adversary who hits 
with his fists, but a blow from the fist kills as 
well as a sword thrust. He is not formidable; 
yet we should be wrong to scorn him; I, 
monsieur, do not owe my political position to 
myself; I inherited it from my brother, of 
whom you have heard, no doubt. Ah! poor 
fellow! If he were in my place you might 
rest easy! ” 

“ Monsieur,” protested Gaston politely, “ I 


Henriette. 


61 

have already understood with regard to per- 
sonal value and intelligence ” 

“You are very kind, but I had no fortune, 
while my brother was the richest man in the 
county. You must be aware of the respect 
peasants have for riches. My nephew and my 
niece will each have 200,000 pounds income. 
I need not tell you that you are in my nephew’s 
house at this moment. My niece owns the 
Hotel in Paris. As for myself, my first elec- 
tion cost me 50,000 francs, this one will cost 
a little more. The result, in three years, you 
see it here ! ” 

“At least you have something to show for 
your money. I have a friend who ruined him- 
self in elections and is not even in the Munici- 
pal Council of his own village.” 

The two men talked together for a long 
time, and took a liking to each other; Rey- 
gnac thought that his first visit would be a short 
one; but six o’clock in the evening he was 
still in Loidreau’s office. It is true that the 
time had been well occupied, for the new sous- 
prefet had learned more of his surroundings 
in this one interview, than the whole of the; 
preceding three days. 


62 


Henriette. 


“ This is enough for to-day,” said the 
deputy; “pardon me if I have taken advan- 
tage of you, but it is the first time since my 
first election that I have talked with- one of 
my sous-prefets. The last would not bow to 
me in the street. Now, I will present you to 
the ladies and you will dine with us.” 

Gaston, more curious than ever to see Mme. 
Loidreau and above all her niece, murmured 
the usual objections in such an instance. 

“Come! do not be ceremonious,” said M. 
Loidreau in a good-natured tone ; “ you are a 
caller and your costume is excused in advance.” 

Reygnac, who was called in Paris the “ ex- 
quisite Reygnac,” slightly smiled at hearing 
these words. But when, a half-hour later, he 
entered the brilliantly-lighted dining room, 
although outside it was daylight, he under- 
stood that he had been asked under extenuat- 
ing circumstances to dine otherwise than in 
evening dress. 

The deputy and his secretary, who were 
pomaded and starched, with patent leathers 
and button-hole bouquets, had the appearance 
of gentlemen who were to spend their evening 
at the opera, 


Henriette. 


63 


Madame Loidreau, daughter of a rich farmer 
at Mont»escourt, married twenty-five years be- 
fore to the young Justice of Peace, was dressed 
according to her usual custom in a black silk 
dress ; but what silk ! it would stand alone, it 
was so rich and heavy. At each spoonful of 
soup the good lady carried to her lips, it made 
a rustling which seemed to say,. “ They make 
no better in Lyons.” 

Mile. Loidreau merited largely her reputa- 
tion for beauty. She was a wonderful brunette 
of a dead shade, with straight lustrous bands 
of hair, which so few ladies can v/ear on ac- 
count of the tint, which was as dark as a 
“raven’s wing,” a low forehead, large black 
eyes and red lips which are indispensable to 
make this manner of dressing the hair becom- 
ing. likewise there were not in all Paris 
three ladies who carried themselves in such 
an irreproachable manner. 

Henriette Loidreau had these advantages — 
an exquisite figure, a little too-long waisted 
perhaps — it was the fashion in 1877 — but 
small enough to clasp with two hands, and ex- 
panding above like a Greek vase. Her dress, 
a maize foulard and white lace, slightly opened 


64 


Henriette. 


at the neck, was made like those that came 
from a dress-maker in Paris, whom fashionable 
ladies were beginning to employ. 

The great fault of this beautiful creature 
was, she had not the air of a candid young 
lady. It was not that she had the eccentri- 
cities that so many heiresses of her kind affect. 
She spoke seldom, not haughtily, and without 
a trace of slang. She was not absorbed with 
the idea of being a “ fast ” young lady — an am- 
bition which manifests itself amongst romps 
of sixteen years of age. She did not seem to 
belong to the tribe of “ blue stockings,” neither 
was she a “ sportswoman ” or a “ flirt. ” She 
talked quietly, replying to the others, and 
leaving them time to answer, without laugh- 
ing incessantly at what she said, or at the 
others. She ate her beef with the stately appe- 
tite of a person who finds it done to a turn — 
and knows that it is she who pays for it. 
Moreover, nothing marked the air of “ it is 
mine,” if it was not now and then a strangely 
imperious aspect, and the prompt obedience 
of some inattentive servant. 

Among the persons who were there, each 
treated Reygnac in a different manner, accord- 


Henriette. 65 

mg to his education, situation, or personal 
feelings. 

The deputy called him “ Monsieur le sous- 
prefet.” His wife gave him his title, “ Mon- 
sieur le Count. ” Henriette confined herself 
to “Monsieur;” as for Perrin, he did not 
speak to Gaston, as he considered that he had 
stolen his place from him. For since the 16th 
of May, this articled lawyer, picked up by 
Loidreau, whilst hanging about the courts, 
upon the recommendation of the head of the 
party, had considered beyond doubt that his 
patron would ask for him the office of sous- 
prefet of Montescourt. This young man, as 
we shall see later, had pictured to himself still 
more ambitious ideas. 

Justin Loidreau made alone, or nearly so, 
all the efforts at conversation. It was always 
so when he received a new guest, not that he 
was a great talker, but he feared the slips in 
oratory, or as he said in private, “ slips of the 
tongue,” of his wife, and God knows he had 
reason to. 

Sometimes he made, himself, stupid blun- 
ders. It could not be otherwise, having been 

Justice of Peace in a little village for twenty- 
5 


66 


Hemiette. 


five years, after having learned Latin with an 
uncle, a cure in a little country hole. On 
these unlucky occasions, Henriette had a way 
of looking at her uncle which said to him, 
“ danger,” and suppressed him at once. Dur- 
ing the first of their living together, the house- 
hold of the elder Loidreau gave much annoy- 
ance to the young orphan, and nobody would 
imagine the trouble she took to make perfect 
establishments of Fresnau and the Boulevard 
Haussmann ; but as far as her uncle was con- 
cerned, she had exaggerated the condition of 
affairs. The deputy who had once worn his 
slippers all day, disappeared; he became a 
correct man of the world, ready to die of 
hunger sooner than not to dine in his dress 
suit, even in the country. He would have 
refused a letter stuffed with bank notes, pre- 
sented by his valet otherwise than on a silver 
salver. Still more, if one could believe the 
Democrat, the deputy’s bed was made every 
morning by a servant in white gloves. Loi- 
dreau never suspected the number of votes 
that he lost, in conseqence of this assertion, 
not denied. 

Whilst the roast was passed around from a 


Henriette. 


67 


massive silver platter, Justin, a kind man at 
heart, and wishing to put the count at his ease, 
said to him, “ You must come often and take 
us by surprise, like to-day, and without cere- 
mony ; you will give these ladies pleasure, for 
they see no high life in the country.” 

Henriette looked at her uncle to warn him 
to be careful what he said; but already Gas- 
ton replied with his most serious air, “You 
are, monsieur, of the same mind as the Mar- 
quise in £ La Gageure Imprevue ’ — in the coun- 
try one takes what he finds. 

Then to continue the series — Aunt Loi- 
dreau, not wishing to be less polite than her 
husband, said with her most affable air, “And 
when Monsieur le Count wishes to come to 
Fresnau, he will only have to send us some 
word, and we will go for him with our carriage. 
There are a regiment of horses here that ought 
to be exercised every day, and they may as 
well take the road to Montescourt as any 
other.” 

Gaston was just ready to reply to her in the 
same tone as he had to her husband, but this 
time he was the one to whom the niece looked 
as much as to say : “ Believe me, you had bet- 


68 


Henriette. 


ter give that up! ” So Reygnac replied only 
by a slight inclination of the head. 

A silence of several minutes intervened, 
Henriette broke it by saying to Gaston: 

“ Perhaps you know the Barjols, who live 
about six miles from here?” 

“ Raoul de Barjols is one of my best friends ; 
but I have never seen his mother, or sister, 
who live alone upon their estate, and do not 
often leave the province. Do you see them 
often, Mile.?” 

“Ah!” you know the Marquis de Barjols,” 
interrupted the deputy, nervously. “ I am 
very glad to know it, for here at least we shall 
need him. He is a very pleasant man, who 
unfortunately lives very little among his own 
people, although he is their mayor. Days 
when the Municipal Council meets, he comes 
in the. morning and leaves at night. At this 
rate, you can judge what his influence is.” 

“ Yes,” said Henriette, “ but to make amends 
the Marquise de Barjols and Sabine are the 
main stay of the poor people for miles around. 
Also I assure you if these ladies could appear 
at the elections ” 

“ That is a mistake,” interrupted Loidreau, 


Henriette. 


69 

“ gratitude is an agent more than mediocre in 
such a case. The farmer will naturally refuse 
his vote to the kind-hearted man, who kept 
him the day before from starvation, and will 
give it to the clever fellow, who promises for 
the coming year the suppression of taxes and 
division of land.” 

“ Is Mile. Barjols pretty?” asked Gas- 
ton. 

“ Better than pretty, adorable,” replied 
Henriette, “Ah! the good, happy, enviable 
creature ! One of my greatest troubles is, that 
we see each other so rarely. We were together 
at Varenne, and as she was a year or two older, 
she took me under her protection; we were 

inseparable, but since ” A sigh singularly 

mournful finished the sentence. Gaston, some- 
what surprised, looked at Henriette ; he wanted 
to ask, “ What has happened since? ” 

Suddenly upon the already sombre face of 
the young girl a forbidding scowl deepened ; 
Uncle Loidreau had just said to the butler: 
“Go and inquire if Monsieur Felix is ready 
to come down.” 

“ I doubt it,” said the aunt, who seemed, 
contrary to her niece, delighted at the very 


70 


He?iriette . 


name ; “ he was only called in as we sat down 
at the table and his toilette is not finished.” 

The door opened; it was the butler who 
said solemnly: “ Monsieur Felix will be ready 
in a moment.” 

As Gaston was wondering to himself who 
this inmate could be, who came so late to the 
table, a superb child, three years old, with 
naked arms, neck, and legs, emerging from a 
cloud of lace, appeared led by a nurse. 

It was “ Monsieur Felix,” the future lord of 
the mansion, brother of Henriette and suc- 
cessor to the name, already treated with the 
ceremony of a presumptive heir. 

From this moment Gaston could hardly be- 
lieve that he was with the same persons. The 
deputy, forgetting the rules of “ high life ” took 
the child upon his knee and covered him with 
kisses, whilst Mine. Loidreau loaded him with 
sweetmeats. 

The child smiled; his beautiful black eyes 
• — like his sister’s — sparkling with health and 
mischievousness, were fixed with curiosity upon 
the stranger. M. Perrin himself, the icy sec- 
retary, relaxed and tickled the child’s bare neck 
with a sprig of verbena, taken from the epergne, 


Henriette . 


7i 


the little fellow bursting into peals of laugh- 
ter. 

The excellent Mme. Loidreau who had never 
had any children of her own, said, turning her 
honest face toward Gaston: “Have I not 
a fine nephew, Monsieur le Count? ” 

The only person who had not moved was 
Henriette, paler than usual, her red lips slightly 
parted to allow one to see a line of dazzling 
enamel, and gathering herself up as if ready 
to bound, she nervously watched with her eyes 
the least movement of the persons about the 
child. 

It was only when the nurse led away Felix, 
that the little creature, satiated with bon-bons 
and caresses, drew near his sister, whose dark 
looks had not left him for an instant. Then 
she gave him a kiss, one only, which was like 
a flash of lightning, when the little creature 
went out as if beaten. She let him go without 
another glance. 

Everybody around the table became serious. 

“ My dear friend,” said the deputy, readjust- 
ing his white necktie, which was deranged by 
his ward’s little hands, “ shall we go and take 
our coffee on the terrace? ” 


72 


Henriette. 



and 


CHAPTER VI. 

\ BOUT a week after his visit to 
Fresnau, Gaston went to see 
the Du Villars. 

The prefet talked a great 
deal to him about the elections, 
a little of business ; Sidonie 
questioned him anew about the beautiful Hen- 
riette. 

“ Truly, madame,” said Reygnac, “ you will 
make me believe that the minister sent me to 
Montescourt only to marry ; I, like a simpleton 
and an old soldier, believed that we were here 
to fight.” 

“Oh! without doubt, to fight is your duty; 
but if you find a fortune upon the battle field, 
I do not see who can prevent your dismount- 
ing from your horse, to pick it up. Mean- 
while, this little Loidreau, did she please you? ” 

“She is very beautiful and intelligent, per- 
haps a little difficult to understand ; I noticed 


Henriette. 


73 


her once or twice with a look like Cleopatra 
caressing an asp. Then, too, I should have a 
crazy mother-in-law.” 

“Yes, but you would have a mother-in-law 
shut up, and it would make you envied by all 
men. Seriously, this poor lady was a sensible 
woman ; if she lost her mind by her late ma- 
ternity or the death of her husband, what does 
it prove? Her daughter’s children have noth- 
ing to fear, since the birth of Henriette pre- 
ceded the accident. As to the young Felix, 
the worst that could happen would be that his 
nephews would be his heirs.” 

“ Well and good, but why do you think Loi- 
dreau wishes to give me his niece? ” 

“For ten reasons, of which to spare your 
blushes, I will not give you the list, only the 
eleventh — which is — because he needs you for 
his election.” 

“ He does not have the appearance of one 
who thinks so.” 

“A Normandy precaution, which depreciates 
its merchandise. But wait for the least com- 
plication, and you will see this pride quickly 
vanish.” 

“You are hard upon him, madame.” 


74 


Ilenriette. 


“And you! you are very dull. Nevertheless, 
do you blame this worthy man ‘to make sure 
of his happiness — that is — his election, by giv- 
ing his niece to a gentleman for a wife, and a 
countess into the bargain ? Orie word is as 
good as a hundred ; my dear friend, reflect, 
hold yourself in readiness and if the opportu- 
nity presents itself, you may count upon me.” 

It was not the first time that a marriage for 
money had been proposed to Reygnac, but 
until now, they had selected persons so disa- 
greeable in every way, that he had escaped 
from them, without suing for anything more. 

Assuredly Mile. Loidreau was not one of 
those from whom a poor young man would 
wish to save himself, unless he had sworn to 
marry only one of the highest rank. Now 
Gaston had not sworn at all, unless it was to 
marry one that pleased him. and did not seem 
too much inclined to please others. In the 
train which took him back to Montescourt he 
thought of Henriette and loyally admitted that 
she filled entirely the first part of the pro- 
gramme. As to the second, it was too soon 
to trouble one’s self about that. 

As soon as he returned to his office Gaston 


Henriette . 


75 


had many other things to think of besides 
marriage. In a single day his table was cov- 
ered with a thick coating of letters of denun- 
ciations and demands for offices. The second 
class of the district asked for places in the first. 
There was no office which was not contested 
like a bill. No petty school-master but whose 
removal or support was not presented like a 
question involving the future of France. Gas- 
ton saw with dismay the dozens of candidates 
springing up for every petty office. 

When he walked the streets of Montescourt, 
it would be hard to say which sickened him 
most, the obsequious smiles, or the hypocriti- 
cal hand shaking, that he met at every step, 
or the salutes, cringing, sorrowful, and uncer- 
tain, back of which he could always hear this 
phrase, which is probably the last word of the 
political interior, “ I have four children to 
maintain!” To verify these denunciations, to 
study these demands, took several days. It 
was enough to drive one crazy, for the persons 
attempted to justify themselves with the energy 
of despair, and were attacked in their turn. 
The competitors mutually charged each other 
with criminal or unworthy actions, and so well, 


76 


Henriette. 


that Gaston could almost believe that amongst 
th*ese 45,000 persons he could not find one 
honest man. It was a mixture, an equal dose, 
of the comic and horrible. But what rendered 
the mess complete was the recommendations. 
Amongst the wise persons, the candidates, with- 
out blinding themselves to their own proper 
merit, protected themselves by the support of 
some influential person. It is in the same 
way that a swimmer with little skill attaches 
himself to a bundle of rattan, as a life pre- 
server. It became necessary, then, to apply 
himself to the question of valuation, in order 
to establish a basis for estimating and appoint- 
ing, that is, a metrical system of protection, 
agreeing that three general councillors equal 
one deputy, and six deputies one minister; 
only it often happens that the protector be- 
comes entangled — voluntarily perhaps — with 
his proteges in recommending two or three 
with the same ardor and in the same terms, 
and as a last resource writes : 

“ My dear sous-prefet, X begs of me to 

ask you for this place. As he is an earnest 
elector, I give him my recommendation, but, 
between us, you would oblige me by appointing 


Henriette. 


77 


Z who is much more attractive in every 

way.” 

With regard to the administration, properly 
understood, Reygnac did but little, at first be- 
cause he had no time, afterward because the 
administrators themselves cared but little 
about it. He had to acknowledge at the end 
of eight days that the “ wants of the people ” 
were a myth, or at least that the people did 
not know of their needs. Those that did feel 
it, had their grudges, prejudices, and faults. 
It costs less to appease the ambitions of three 
greedy persons than to quench the thirst of 
one drunkard. That is why, in a few words, 
that the art of governing people is so difficult. 

One day when Gaston had been working 
for two hours at this thankless task, the Mar- 
quis de Barjol’s card was brought him. 

“ Let him come in ! ” said the poor exile with 
joy; “ and that we may not be disturbed, I am 
not at home to anybody.” 

Raoul entered the sanctuary, and when the 
door was closed, Reygnac threw himself like 
a common mortal upon his friend’s neck. 

“ What ails you ? ” said the new comer ; “ the 
devil take me if I expected such a reception ! 


78 


Henrictte. 


I expected to find you already stupefied, an- 
kylosed and old fogyish, bald headed, with 
whiskers and a stomach; I thought you w'ould 
give me the tips of your fingers .and say, 
‘Take a seat, “ Monsieur le Maire,” ’ for I am 
mayor of Barjols, unless you have revoked it 
lately.” 

“ Listen to me,” said Gaston, “ I will stran- 
gle you at once, if you say mayor, removals, 
elections, or the moral order. You cannot 
know what a state my nerves are in. Ah ! my 
poor friend, it seems to me that I have been 
made king of Aurania, and that I have 
been reduced to the society of my subjects for 
five years. It is a pretty trick that my mother 
has served me, under the pretext of 4 employ- 
ing me! ’ Tell me of the club, the opera, the 
Boulevard. Tell me some gossip, bad as you 
like, I am equal to it; I assure you I have 
not become hard to please.” 

“And this is the way I find you ! I who 
come to make inquiries about your posi- 
tion ” 

“ My position ! hold, would you like to see 
it? You have only to seat yourself at my desk 
and read the two or three thousand sheets of 


Henriette. 


79 


paper you will find there, then you will be sat- 
isfied.’ 

“Upon my honor! one would say that you 
had heard of politics for the first time in your 
life. It is the art of cooking, like any other.” 

“ Capital. Cooking is a charming accom- 
plishment in the dining room, but if you had 
fallen, as I have, into a dark sink where they 
wash dishes, we should see what you would 
think of it then.” 

“You grieve me. I thought you had a 
stronger stomach. What would you have, my 
poor friend? It is a duty that you are accom- 
plishing. Think of your future prospects and 
of your future too.” 

“You are great in this role! I know very 
well I am doing my duty without that! Mean- 
while, I would give three prefectures for one 
hour’s gallop in the lane at Poteaux, or even 
to seat myself like a bashful countryman, 
upon a chair under the trees, and watch the 
people pass by. I would give a pocketbook 
for one cigar smoked on the balcony at the 
club after dinner, to see the illuminated green- 
room of the opera, the lines of gas jets on the 
Rue de la Paix, the crowded Boulevards. The 


8o 


He?iriette. 


country people in disorder. Ah! you have 
done well to come! I can relieve myself a lit- 
tle.” 

“ What an abominable sous-prefet you 
make! ” 

“ There you are deceived. I work like a 
slave. I see everybody. 1 study the work 
thoroughly. I do my best to render justice. 
My predecessor did nothing but play billiards 
during the day and smoke his pipe in the cafe 
during the evening.” 

“You find that it is nothing! I wager that 
he regrets it. Look out for yourself, if you 
prove to be Parisian! ” 

“I, Parisian? Alas! Look at this long 
hair, this uncurled moustache. This coat will 
soon be too narrow for me, for there is no use 
in denying it, I am getting stouter, although I 
have no appetite ; apropos, you will dine with 
me?” 

The Marquis de Barjols has since told that 
this dinner was the worst he ever sat down to 
in his life. The cooking was done by a 
wretched cook, hired by the day. The wine, 
bought by the bottle, would have raised the 
dead. The dishes bore the mark of the hotel 


Henriette. 


Si 


from which they were hired. But Reygnac, full 
of delight at seeing one of his own kind, did 
not mind any of these details, whilst the dig- 
nity of his valet suffered cruelly. After an at- 
tempt to drink some impossible coffee, they 
lighted their cigars and Raoul broached the 
veritable object of his visit. He talked about 
the elections, or rather his own election. At 
this Gaston uttered an exclamation which 
strongly resembled a vigorous oath. 

Without being disconcerted in the least the 
marquis persisted. “ You know very well that 
it is not my idea, but my friends of the legiti- 
mate board have offered it to me. They pro- 
test that my situation in the country ” 

“Ah! bless me, this is too much! ,; inter- 
rupted Reygnac, throwing his cigar out of the 
window. “ I needed this to finish me ; in the 
midst of this desert, peopled by savages, an 
old friend falls from the skies ; I clasp him in 
my arms like a brother ; the sight of him gives 
me joy; I divide my dinner with him and at 
dessert what do I discover? That I have 
given food to the candidate of the opposi- 
tion?” 

“ Opposition is a word from your mouth 
6 


82 


Henriette. 


which astonishes me. If it is to raise up the 
empire in the person of Loidreau that you 
have come to Montescourt, allow me to say 
that I prefer Lasserre.” 

“ So, this is what we have come to ! Listen, 
if the point at stake was to open my purse or 
risk my life at the sword’s point for you, I am 
your man, but to nominate you here, Ah! no. 
If you wish a seat, present yourself at the box 
office of any theatre, there you are well known 
at least.” 

“You forget that we have lived at Barjols 
for five centuries.” 

“ If you speak of the family vaults and their 
inhabitants, I have nothing to say. But, of 
yourself, it is another thing.” 

“Nonsense! You have seen Loidreau.” 

“ Certainly, I have seen him ; I do not say 
to you that he is a great man or that he can 
boast of his ancestors . for five hundred years 
back, but he knows all his electors by name, 
all the chances are for him, at least that is the 
order.” 

Raoul arose with rather a forced smile, 
“ That will do,” said he ; “ be so kind as to 
order my carriage for me, also I thank you for 


Henriette . 


83 


your frankness. I shall write the duke of our 
conversation, and between us, I have reason 
to believe it will surprise him.” 

The two friends separated with a cold shake 
of the hand. 

“There was nothing left but to quarrel with 
this one,” thought Gaston; “why did I come 
to this wretched place? ” 

The next day the Democrat , always well 
informed, published the following article: 

“ It has been some time since one has seen 
so many coronets at the sous-prefecture. Yes- 
terday evening M. le Marquis dined with M. 
le Count. At dessert, the noble lords drank 
to the health of the king, with closed doors. 
We think we know that they also drank to the 
success of the coming elections. Perhaps the 
head of the house (par-interim), at Fresnau, 
will do well not to take the toasts to himself ; 
we may depend upon some surprises, not far 
distant, on the electoral field.” 


8 4 


Henriette. 


CHAPTER VII. 

Two days after, Loidreau walked into Rey- 
gnac’s office and seated himself in the best 
arm chair, with the satisfied air of a man who 
returns home after a long absence. . 

“ My dear sous-prefet,” said he, “ I put my 
foot in this place for the first time in seven 
years, but I will atone for that lost time now 
that we have an official that one can visit. 
We must see each other as much as possible. 
I warn you that you have made a conquest of 
the ladies. Also they have charged me with 
a formal invitation for you, to dine with us 
next Sunday evening. We shall have some 
people there I shall be happy to present to 
you.” 

“ Good! ” thought Reygnac, “the article in 
the Democrat has struck the right chord. All 
the district will be there.” 

“We have reached the moment,” recited 
the candidate, “when the union of all the 


Henriette. 


85 


candidates becomes necessary. The Mar- 
shal is offered to them as a central point to 
rally, but in this district it is to you, Monsieur 
le Sous-Prefet, to whom it belongs, to gather 
them about your person. It is necessary, per- 
mit me to say, that there should be no hesita- 
tion nor equivocation.” 

“ Monsieur,” said Reygnac, “ I should be 
much surprised if myself or my acts were re- 
garded as suspicious. Please give me an ex- 
ample of entire frankness. My intimacy with 
the Marquis de Barjols has caused you some 
uneasiness.” 

“ Let us look at it ; in itself not in the 
least ; I know your opinions, but you have un- 
der your eyes illustrious examples of patriotic 
self-denial, only, it is not necessary to use 
against us your personal friends. If the roy- 
alist committee obstinately maintain the can- 
didature of the marquis, I shall lose four or 
five thousand votes in the minimum; now 
without these votes I can very easily be beaten, 
monsieur.” 

“You look at the thing at its worst, Mon- 
sieur le Deputy.” 

“No, believe me, I know my business; I 


86 


Henriette. 


speak coolly, for I assure you that politics do 
not move me in the least.” 

“ Nonsense,” said Gaston, “ I, whom you 
reckon amongst the convinced!” 

Loidreau drew his chair nearer to Gaston 
and lowered his voice : “ Monsieur de Reygnac, 
you are a gentleman and one can open his 
heart to you in all confidence ; I know univer- 
sal suffrage and I know what one must expect 
from it. If I am re-elected in October, do 
you know what will be my first care? ” 

“ Mon Dieu, no! ” 

“ It will be to try to be nominated General 
Treasurer; then, at least, I shall hold some- 
thing.” 

“But Fresnau, your nephew, your niece? ” 

“ My niece is twenty years old, monsieur, 
and some day she will end by accepting a hus- 
band, above all if I urge it; something I have 
not wished until now. Suppose that her hus- 
band should be an intelligent and honorable 
man, knowing the district and becoming known 
here. There would be then a successor found 
for my deputy’s seat and a guardian for the 
little boy Felix; I leave him at Fresnau with 
his wife, his electors, and his brother-in-law; 


Henriette. 


87 


I spend my days in my receivership, and I am 
willing to be hung if I am ever caught talking, 
or acting politics. But it will be necessary, 
before all, that I be renominated in October.” 

Loidreau took out his watch and arose. He 
had said all he wished to say. 

“Au revoir, my dear sous-prefet ; I forgot 
myself chatting with you. Sunday evening, 
we shall see you.” 

“My faith!” thought Gaston when alone, 
“ Madame du Villars has prophesied truly and 
Loidreau comes to offer me his niece’s hand, 
on condition that I will refuse my aid to can- 
didate Barjols. Decidedly the situation as- 
sumes an interesting phase.” 

That evening he wrote to his mother, “ I 
have made, it seems to me, a conquest of a 
beautiful girl who has five or six millions dowry. 
She has a brother who is three years old ; a 
mother who is insane, and an uncle who is 
candidate in the elections, who has his reasons 
for wishing to please me. Unfortunately, the 
father of this young girl was a mason, but he 
had the good taste not to always work for 
others ; I recommend to you a certain hotel 
built by him on Avenue de Messine, a hand- 


88 


Henriette. 


some one, by my faith ! and which his son-in- 
law will occupy. Meanwhile, to be frank, I 
ought to tell you that it will be too early to be- 
gin preparations for the wedding, for I antici- 
pated a little in speaking to you of the con- 
quest, for truly I have only conquered the 
uncle. As to the niece, I have seen her only 
once and she hardly looked at me. So, do 
not take this pleasantry as serious. Mean- 
while, I am always the same impractical man 
that you have reproached me with being ; if 
ever I do marry, it will not be after this 
fashion.” 

The following Sunday, about thirty people 
were gathered around a glittering table in the 
dining room at Fresnau; one met there some- 
what of a mixture; some of the principal 
office holders of Montescourt ; some rich citi- 
zens of the neighborhood; others that were 
not; a Parisian journalist engaged for the 
elections ; the cure of the parish, and of course, 
Gaston de Reygnac, the curiosity, if not the 
hero of the party. 

Loidreau thought to make a master stroke 
in inviting the Marquis de Barjols, but Raoul 
had a pretext of hindrance, and Loidreau, who 


Henriette. 


89 


liked much what is called “ to take action ” of 
the proceeding, had the place of the stubborn 
guest left empty, to show all from which side 
came the first slight. 

As to the most distinguished person at this 
reunion, Reygnac, he had received from the 
beautiful heiress a visibly cold welcome. 

“ What whim has seized her? ” he asked him- 
self; “does she accuse me, like the Dei?io - 
crat \ of having embraced the cause of the 
factious Raoul? Or perchance she may have 
heard of the good intention of her uncle as to 
herself and me ; in that case I cannot say that 
she encourages them. It will be necessary to 
get out of the affair at once. Does she take me 
for a vulgar fortune hunter? Bless my heart! 
My beauty, you deceive yourself, and I shall 
take care to let you see it.” 

Meanwhile the dinner progressed slowly to 
its end. All knew that the orders were not to 
talk politics, but it was lost time ; one could 
see it was in their minds ; what harm to speak 
of it ? Accordingly as their heads became ex- 
cited, allusions we e easily dropped, like the 
cannons of a ship, lighted by an incendiary. At 
first Loidreau did his best to restrain them, 


9 ° 


Henriette. 


but after the first glass of champagne, he ad- 
mitted himself vanquished and bowed his head 
to the toasts. They commenced to drink to 
his success, without comment. Then the ora- 
tors made desperate attempts, and what at- 
tempts ! 

The echoes of history ranged from St. He- 
lena to Chiselhurst. The master of the house, 
who was, after all, a man of certain shrewdness, 
closed the seance by a last toast. 

“ I drink,” said he, “ to the young magis- 
trate, whose presence in the midst of us is 
sufficient to merit our confidence in the gov- 
ernment, which has shown such good sense in 
the choice.” 

In the midst of thunders of applause Rey- 
gnac bowed, his hand placed over his heart. 
In accepting this toast as he had the others, 
he tacitly bound himself to support them. At 
the same time he looked at Henriette, as much 
as to say: Am I compromised enough now? 
Do you think still that I would cause any 
trouble for this good man who is your uncle? 

But his look met two eyes full of defiance, 
and while they all were touching glasses Mile. 
Loidreau left hers scornfully upon the table. 



9 2 


Henriette . 


It was almost a scandal; the guests looked at 
each other. Fortunately it was time to leave 
the table. 

After the coffee was served in the parlor, 
the young girl seated herself at the piano, at 
her uncle’s request, and played with a true 
talent a grande valse of Chopin’s. The guests 
applauded with frenzy; only the journalist 
seated under a lamp in full light did not stir, 
but when the eyes of all were turned toward 
this refractory auditor, they saw that he had 
tears in his eyes; then silence reigned, and 
one felt something like respect for him. Each 
one knew that this talented man’s silent tears 
went far ahead of all their applause. 

“Ah! Monsieur le Sous-Prefet,” asked Loid- 
reau for want of something to. say, “what 
do you think of my niece’s playing? Plante 
said that she was his best pupil.” 

Reygnac made a gesture as if regretting 
that he must reply. “Mon Dieu! Mademoi- 
selle possesses a remarkable talent, but I never 
could understand why French people are so 
wild over Chopin’s music. They lack one in- 
dispensable quality to render it well, that is 
they should be Poles.” 


Henriette. 


93 


Everybody was surprised at Gaston’s sever- 
ity. It was generally considered bad taste; 
Perrin seemed to feel highly indignant. The 
journalist was vexed that another should pro- 
duce more of a sensation than he had. 

Henriette turned her face to the people and 
looked more surprised than displeased; she 
looked at Gaston with a haughty half-smile, 
which well became her proud beauty. 

Suddenly, Gaston, who had not taken his 
eyes off from her, admiring her, spite of all, 
saw her change countenance and take on an 
indefinable expression where terror seemed to 
predominate. The door had just opened and 
“ Monsieur Felix” made his entrance into the 
room, which belonged to him, and among the 
guests, to whom, without knowing it, he had just 
given a dinner worthy a congress of diplomats. 

Beautiful as an Italian Cupid, with his black 
eyes and curling blonde hair, the child, seated 
upon his aunt’s knee, looked curiously at all 
these strange faces stooping before him. 

When he saw his sister seated upon the 
music stool outside the circle, he held out his 
little arms, and the young girl as if conquered 
by this gesture, sprang forward and took him 


94 


Henriette. 


in her arms. She kept him only long enough 
to give him a kiss, fierce with passionate en- 
ergy, then she gave him to her aunt, and re- 
turned to the piano, which she made ring with 
the famous march, which Berlioz interpolated 
into his “ Damnation of Faust.” 

“ Strange girl,” thought Gaston, who had not 
lost one of her movements. “ Is she angry 
with this little fellow because he must have 
half her fortune? Or is it her way of loving 
people? One thing is sure! that is, we must 
have a little reckoning together, and the sooner 
the better.” 

A quarter of an hour later, all the guests 
were promenading in the park, where the fine 
moon was shedding her silvery light. As it 
is the fashion in the country, the men, with 
lighted cigars, surrounded the master of the 
house, while the ladies kept apart under charge 
of Madame Loidreau. 

Little by little a white shadow strayed away 
from the group. It was Henriette ; she walked 
with bent head, at equal distances from the 
men — dashing at full speed into politics, and 
the women busy talking of servants. Sud- 
denly a step behind her broke her revery. 


Henriette. 


95 


“Mademoiselle,” said Reygnac, approach- 
ing her in a nervous manner, “ will you allow 
me to respectfully ask you a question? ” 

Henriette, at first astonished, looked at her 
questioner, who had a respectful air, it is true, 
although it did not detract from his dignified 
bearing. Mile. Loidreau herself was im- 
pressed by it; no man she had known had 
been so near intimidating her. Taking the 
young girl’s silence for consent, Gaston con- 
tinued. 

“ Do you know what true hospitality is, 
mademoiselle? It is a kind of religion, which 
makes even an enemy sacred to those who re- 
ceive them under their roof; I am in your 
house, and I am not your enemy. Why have 
I received from you just now an insult which 
would be sufficient between men, to make them 
fight? ” 

“You are not in my house,” said Henriette, 
“ you are my uncle’s guest. His election in- 
terests him, and he considers it before every- 
thing else ; that is all right. The means which 
he uses to succeed are his affairs. It may be 
that he gives dinners, makes promises, and 
perhaps contracts engagements. But there are 


9 6 


Henriette. 


some things that he cannot do ; that is, mon- 
sier, what I wish to make you understand; I 
have my reasons for it.” 

The coolness of this strange person exasper- 
ated him more than the insult she had given 
him at the table. Of what reasons could she 
be speaking? Did she know by chance of 
Loidreau’s visit to the sous-prefecture and the 
oratorical display which he indulged in? Did 
she suppose that he, Reygnac, had listened to 
it? This idea made him start. 

“ I see,” said he, “ that it pleases you to give 
a lesson, but to whom! To your uncle or to 
me? If it is your uncle, was it necessary that 
your hand, in order to hit him, should graze 
the cheek of an honest gentleman? If you 
believe, mademoiselle, that being all that you 
are, gives you the right to lay aside courtesy 
and justice, my pity for you surpasses my re- 
sentment.” 

“Oh!” muttered she stamping her foot, 
“the cursed fate of being a woman! To be 
obliged to listen to such words ! ” 

“ Just now you obliged me to submit to what 
was more difficult, for thirty people had their 
eyes upon me.” 


Henriette. 


97 


“Pardon! ” said she quickly with an accent 
of passionate suffering, and turning away her 
head, as if the word had escaped spite of her- 
self. “Yes! pity me. Pity me for being alone 
in the world. What am I saying ? It would be 
better for me to be alone and not dependent in 
the least upon an ambitious man who would 
give me, no matter to whom; would let me 
fall no matter where, in order to secure a ma- 
jority of one thousand votes. Do you think I 
do not suspect that he has offered me to you ; 
do not reply; he has done worse than that. 
You, at least are an honest man.” 

“A Reygnac has the pretension to be some- 
thing more than an honest man, mademoiselle ; 
but enough on this subject; I pardon you, 
only there must not be, in the future, a like 
misunderstanding. After what has happened 
this evening, after what you have said to me, 
you will find a sufficient guarantee, I think, 

against all illusion on my part. Have no 

fear. Though I might for a certain price gain a 
throne for myself or prevent the whole universe 
from perishing to-morrow, never should I think 
of you otherwise than I think of that statue 
there. This I swear to you, upon my honor.” 

7 


I 



Henriette. 


99 


He spoke in a tone of voice that the re- 
mains of anger made a little vibrating; but 
he was one of those who could not keep for 
any length of time malice against a woman, 
especially one as beautiful as Henriette, and 
she was superlatively so, at this time. The 
emotions which had dominated, gave to her 
mysteriously lighted-up face no end of fasci- 
nations. Added to this picture, a frame made 
to take the spite out of the most vindictive, 
the delicious freshness of the night, the air 
sweetly perfumed by the neighboring flowers, 
the sombre thickness of the mass of green foli- 
age shielded the solitude of the tete-a-tete, 
and, as if to show them how little they appre- 
ciated it, twenty steps from them the sweet 
voice of a nightingale sang the song of eternal 
love, in his happy carelessness. 

Henriette at this moment would have had 
only one word to say to make Gaston feel 
that he had sworn a little too quickly, and to 
carry away from him more than a pardon ; but 
without doubt the pardon was sufficient for 
her. She made neither gesture nor sound, 
and drawing over her half-naked shoulders a 
white-lace scarf, she plunged into a narrow 


IOO 


Henriette. 


foot-path, leaving her companion displeased 
with her, but still more astonished at himself. 
During this time, in the midst of the circle of 
white shirt fronts that good digestion had soft- 
ened, Loidreau, convinced of his own admira- 
tion, repeated the famous phrase, “We have 
reached the moment when the union of the 
conservatives becomes necessary.” From the 
feminine group, the tart voice of Mme. Loi- 
dreau penetrated in her turn, “ I get my meats 
from Paris during the winter, but in summer 
it will be impossible on account of the heat.” 


Henriette. 


IOI 


CHAPTER VIII. 

It is not everybody who has had the oppor- 
tunity, in his life, to say to a beautiful girl, 
walking with her in the moonlight: “You are 
adorable, you are twenty years old, and have 
five millions dowry, your guardian needs me 
and will favor my suit, but to prevent the world 
from coming to an end, I would not marry 
you.” 

Whilst driving back to Montescourt, Rey- 
gnac could relish at his leisure the satisfaction 
of haying done this rare thing ; he felt a cer- 
tain pride in himself. He had had the best 
of it, so it seemed to him, and meanwhile, he 
saw everything rose colored, like a man who 
has beeai drinking some real champagne. If 
he drank Saumur at two francs a bottle he 
would have had neuralgia, and found that he 
had been too hasty. Our judgment hangs on 
so little a thing! 

“This is the way,” said he, “it is necessary 


102 


Henriette. 


to treat the daughters of these commoners. 
They bribe us well with their millions ! Could 
we not earn the millions without them? With- 
out us, they could never be anything but Loi- 
dreaus.” 

Meanwhile, wishing to be just toward each, 
in spite of his advantages, he continued: 
“ This girl is pretty after all. She is even very 
beautiful ; such eyes as hers make one do silly 
things, and she has an astonishing chic for a 
girl who is not of noble birth. She would have 
a distinguished look, seated in a phaeton at 
the left of a husband like me. Only we should 
be obliged to have for the phaeton some 
matchless horses. I see from here, the hotel 
in the Boulevard Haussmann. As to location, 
I know of none more convenient. One can 
reach the Bois in ten minutes, the theatre in 
five ” 

Launched upon so good a road, Gaston was 
not for stopping short. He entered the thea- 
tre, chose the best box, which he hired for three 
years. Then he returned to the Boulevard 
Haussmann, where, unfortunately, the stables 
were a little small, but he consoled himself 
in reflecting that it was more practical to have 


Henriette. 


103 


his carriages and horses in an out-house, built 
expressly with a yard for work and washing. 
He made the plans in his head, and was an- 
noyed to find that he could not do it with much 
less than half a million. It was foolish, but 
he probably would have done it, if the carriage, 
in making a fearful uproar passing over the 
first pavements of Montescourt, had not 
aroused him and recalled him to more practi- 
cal ideas. 

He entered his house, walked into his 
office, and found upon his desk his first month’s 
salary. 

“Mafoi!” thought he, “here is the first 
money I ever earned in my life, for I have al- 
ways lost at cards. Three hundred and sixty- 
five francs. Bless me ! it is a sum ; all the 
same, I must wait before I build my stables.” 

The next day, after he had been working for 
two hours making out the list of the new cor- 
porations, a card was brought him upon which 
was written, “ The Mayor of Barjols and his 
assistant.” 

“ Tell them to come in,” said Reygnac, writ- 
ing the last line on the page. The unexpected 
sound which he heard behind him, of little 


io4 


Henriette. 


heels and rustling of skirts, made him turn his 
head. A blonde young lady, small, without 
being thin, entered his office, looking a little 
embarrassed, but on the whole, she had an 
amused and curious look. Her attire was 
simple, but not like anybody else’s. Her 
cambric dress, at two francs a yard, had been 
made at Paris. The large straw hat, trimmed 
with a knot of red ribbon, would have made 
the stylish milliner at Montescourt smile. 
Added to that, a substantial ecru umbrella, 
gloves that were not quite new, and shoes with 
heavy soles; behind, Raoul’s cheerful face 
appeared. You will suspect at once, as Rey- 
gnac did, the name of this young lady who ven- 
tured thus into the sous-prefecture of Montes- 
court. 

Reygnac, much surprised, arose precipitately, 
buttoned his loose jacket, re-adjusted his neck 
tie, and hastened to offer her a seat without 
stopping to shake hands with the marquis. 

“Mon Dieu! Mademoiselle, why did they 
not take you into the drawing-room? ” 

“ Into the drawing-room ! ” said Raoul gayly ; 
“ would you believe that this respectable young 
lady has come to pay a visit to a young bache- 


Henriette. 


io 5 

lor; above all one that is sous-prefet of the 
Republic? We have public business and are 
here to transact it. I present to you my assist- 
ant, or if you like it better, my director of pub- 
lic charities, otherwise called my sister.” 

“Mademoiselle,” said Gaston bowing, “I 
know of many large cities where it is not done 
as well as at Barjols.” 

“Come,” interrupted Raoul, “no flattery in 
the exercise of your duties. You, Sabine, ex- 
plain what you wish.” 

“ Monsieur ” commenced the young 

girl. 

“ People say, * monsieur le sous-prefet,’ ” 
corrected the marquis. 

“ We have come about a lottery,” said Sa- 
bine, shrugging her pretty shoulders, and look- 
ing at her brother. 

Gaston put his hand into his pocket. “ Give 
me some tickets, mademoiselle; twenty-five, 
a hundred, what you will. It has been 
more than a month since a person has 
begged of me, and I assure you I have 
missed it.” 

“Just see,” interrupted Raoul gesticulating, 
“ by what ignoramuses we are governed to-day ! 


io6 


Henriette. 


I advise you to explain, my dear, to this mag- 
istrate, his duties.” 

“ Monsieur,” continued Sabine who seemed 
very much amused, “before organizing this 
lottery for the poor people of Barjols, I need 
your license; without it, I should be prose- 
cuted.” 

“Prosecuted! My license! But, mademoi- 
selle, to whom then do you think you are speak- 
ing ? Go ; organize your lotteries and never stop 
them, if you find the system lucrative. After 
all, I believe you will not be the first, and you 
would be very wrong to trouble yourself. So 
take- your freedom. You have all the license 
that one can give or receive in this world.” 

“It is” — said Sabine hesitating a little. 

“ My sister is like the Normans. She wants 
a little piece of writing. She is cautious, since 
she was near being imprisoned last year for 
devoting herself to a lottery that was not 
authorized. Your predecessor was less gallant 
than you, and at the present time none of you 
fellows are long lived.” 

Gaston rang the bell ; the clerk appeared. 

“ Quick, Monsieur Lefevre, a decree approv- 
ing a lottery for Mademoiselle de Barjols.” 


Henriette. 


107 


From behind his gold glasses Lefevre gave 
his chief a singular look. It was thus that 
Sully must have stared at Henry IV. the day 
when that monarch wrote out one of those 
promises of marriage, which he indulged him- 
self in signing, which was as easy to get out of 
as a lottery. 

“ Mademoiselle is of age?” asked the sec- 
retary, as if he had put an ordinary question. 

“ I am twenty-three years old,” Sabine hero- 
ically answered, and raising her eyes to the 
ceiling, she added with a very amusing air of 
self-sacrifice, “it is for the poor! ” 

Lefevre asked other questions less embar- 
rassing. As Sabine answered, he took notes. 
At the end he asked: 

“ Have you written out a petition on stamped 
paper? Have you the mayor’s authorization? ” 

“ That is useless,” said Raoul, “ since my 
sister applies in person, and the mayor accom- 
panies her.” 

But Lefevre would listen to nothing, and 
strictly confined himself to the formal rules ; 
so well, that the marquis complied and gave 
his signature. 

^Sabine took twelve sous out of her pocket 


io8 


Henriette. 


to pay for the license, and the clerk left, prom- 
ising it should be ready in an hour. 

“Eh! bien,” said Gaston, “if mademoiselle 
will permit me, I will become a gentleman of 
leisure for an hour and do the honors of my 
park.” 

The park was soon visited. It consisted of 
a garden planted with beautiful trees, under 
which a consumptive turf was drying; it ter- 
minated with a terrace from which one had a 
pretty view of the country. 

They seated themselves in the shade, around 
a rusty iron table, which was soon concealed 
with plates of cake and wine glasses; Rey- 
gnac gave himself the long-forgotten pleasure 
of ordering luncheon for a pretty girl. Until 
now he had hardly looked at his visitor, not 
that he lowered his eyes from habit in the 
presence of ladies, but because he liked to do 
agreeable things at his leisure, and conscien- 
tiously. In raising her veil, after removing 
her gloves from her hands, Mademoiselle de 
Barjols exposed a very pretty white hand — a 
little plump, but very appetizing — mid some 
large beautiful blue eyes, which seemed to 
say, “ we are gentle and inoffensive because it 


Henriette. 


109 

pleases us so to be, but still it would not do to 
rely on it.” 

Her teeth were the most beautiful ever seen, 
although, to conceal nothing, she had two 
lower ones which, finding the casket too small, 
were very drolly perched over the others. 

As to what the lady thought, I cannot say, 
but Gaston, before the first cake disappeared, 
vowed to himself, that nothing was so stupid 
as a too-regular set of teeth. Sabine was one 
of those fortunate mortals who was pleasing. 
Whatever she did, whatever she wore, and if 
need be, whatever she lacked, I think it would 
be called in good French, “ Avoir le charme .” 

Joined to this fairy’s gift, was an air of 
health and good spirits, a little sentiment con- 
cealed under a mocking air, and finally the dis- 
tinction of a noble ancestry. You can under- 
stand that Gaston, who was a good judge of 
ladies, spared no pains for this one. When I 
say that he was a good judge of ladies, I am 
only half telling the truth. He had seen many, 
and intimately, but all the specimens that 
passed before his eyes were hot-house plants, 
some very valuable, others the contrary. They 
all lacked simplicity, which is the key note of 


no 


Henriette . 


education. A young man who leads a jolly 
life, whose mother does not entertain, who fre- 
quents exclusively — in matters of society — 
those houses where one can amuse one’s self, 
can reach the age of forty years without hav- 
ing met a Sabine de Barjols, and when he does 
meet one, after seven or eight years of flirta- 
tion, of all kinds of love save the platonic, of 
intrigues where nothing was wanted except es- 
teem, he opens his eyes like a miner at New- 
castle, who finds in the coal dust of his drift 
an ermine with fur as white as snow. 

“So, mademoiselle,” said Gaston, “it is you 
who take the mayor’s place when he is ab- 
sent?” 

“It is true, my days are not long enough, 
and I often wonder what the ministers do.” 

“ There are a dozen of them and only one 
of you.” 

“Yes, but they have not a mother to take 
care of, and they do not play the organ in 
church,” added Raoul, “nor make poultices 
for the sick, nor clothes for the poor ” 

“And they have no poultry yard,” inter- 
rupted Sabine hurriedly. 

“There, mademoiselle, is where you are 


Henriette . 


in 


mistaken, let me tell you ; but they have no 
need to trouble themselves, their fowls come 
to eat from their hands ; and your parish, how 
does it get on? ” 

“ Not so bad, sometimes the firemen give 
some annoyance.” 

“ Tell me about it. Can I help you? ” 

“ Perhaps, we are talking of establishing a 
company, for we often have fires. The com- 
mittee have voted for some uniforms, but they 
refuse to vote for the engine.” 

“ Behold some clever men ! and what says 
Monsieur le Maire?” 

Mile. Barjols raised two supplicating eyes 
to Gaston’s face. “ My brother says, if the 

administration would help us the district is 

not rich, and nothing has been done for us for 
a long time. This M. Lasserre always refused 
to take any notice of us on account of my 
brother’s political ideas, which are ” 

“ Deplorable,” added Gaston a little amused 
and a little vexed to see this young aristocrat 
using all the precaution in speaking to him 
that she would have taken with a vagabond. 

“Very well, mademoiselle, you shall have 
your fire engine, I promise it.” 


I 12 


Henriette. 


“ How these poor people will bless you.” 

“You are the one they will bless; but I sus- 
pect that is their custom ; in truth I was igno- 
rant until to-day, of what the life of a young 
girl like you might be, busying yourself with 
serious things, living for others and completely 
happy, into the bargain, for I see that you are.” 

“I am, thanks to you, monsieur, I have had 
a good day. With all my heart, I thank you.” 

At this moment Lefevre re-appeared with a 
paper, majestically filled with “whereas” and 
“ considering.” It laid stress among other 
motives upon the recipient’s “good life and 
morals,” which made Gaston shrug his shoul- 
ders while listening to the reading given by 
Lefevre. 

Very solemnly he pushed away the plates 
of cake, took the pen which Lefevre handed 
him, and made his signature. 

“ I hope,” said he, putting the paper into 
the pretty hand extended for it, “ that you will 
have some other favors to ask.” 

“ I have one more,” replied Sabine blush- 
ing a little, “ but this one is on my mother’s 
part; it is to come soon to see her at Barjols. 
Now I must arouse my brother.” 


Hejiriette. 


n 3 


“ Raoul!” 

“What do you want?” said the marquis 
moving in his chair. 

“Your assistant wishes to go,” said Rey- 



this the way you busy yourself with official 
matters? ” 


“ It was warm and you were talking Has 

my sister got her engine? ” 


Heiiriette. 


114 

“ You listened to us then? ” 

“No, but it was a serious matter; the lot- 
tery was only a pretext; with women, it is 
always the postscript which is the principal 
thing; she is like them all.” 

“ I do not think so,” murmured Gaston, 
watching Mademoiselle de Barjols, who was 
putting the paper into her pocket. 

When his guests had departed, he felt seized 
with a prodigious ennui . He did not wish to 
return to his papers, nor to read his journa 1 , 
to see anybody or to be alone, to go out or to 
stay at home. In thinking it over, he discov- 
ered that he wished for only one thing; it 
was, to be seated in the carriage which bore 
Sabine away. 


Henriette. 


”5 


CHAPTER IX. 

The next morning, the Countess de Reygnac 
telegraphed her son, “ I shall be with you 
this evening.” Gaston had a room prepared 
for his mother, as well as he could, and at the 
appointed time he was at the station to meet 
her. She descended from a second-class com- 
partment. She was a small person, with a 
worn-out looking face ; her dress was like her 
face, but her eyes sparkled with intelligence, 
and the strong lines about her mouth denoted 
an iron will. She might be good-natured, but 
nothing could make one believe it was her 
dominating quality; neither the good qualities 
nor faults were to be read at first sight upon 
this cold, stony face, over which she had 
perfect control. 

“ What a pleasant surprise ! ” exclaimed her 
son, embracing her with more of respect than 
tenderness. “ I did not expect you for a month. 
What has so agreeably changed your plans?” 


n6 Henriette . 

“Your last letter and the reflections that it 
suggested to me. We will talk of it seriously 
to-morrow, when I shall have slept. These 
cars exhaust one, but there was no second- 
class compartment on the express.” 

“Ah, mother, for so little economy! ” 

“ My poor boy,” said the countess with a 
sigh, “you know very well that we are re- 
duced to small economies.” 

The Countess de Reygnac, dowager of not 
so high birth as her husband (for she was 
really and truly only a daughter of trades- 
people), but much richer, had overcome, to 
marry him, the resistance of all her friends. 
She was twenty then; she loved, and love is 
blind or at least near-sighted, which makes 
mistakes easier. 

At the end of six months the young count- 
ess did not need glasses to see that she had 
deceived herself, as well as that she was being 
deceived. The saddest thing was, that she 
was deceived at her own expense. Then she 
commenced to struggle, less for herself than 
her son, who was born soon after. Never — the 
truth must be told— was a more courteous 
struggle seen. 


He?iriette. 


117 

Gaston’s father was a gentleman to the tips 
of his fingers, and I do not think it was possi- 
ble that one could ruin his wife in a more po- 
lite fashion. M. de Reygnac reduced her to 
the last stages of poverty with such charming 
attentions, that she often asked herself if this 
misery was not Heaven. 

But a cold taken, God only knows when or 
how; happily brought to an end this courtesy, 
by putting the count in the cemetery. 

His widow buried him civilly, but her cour- 
tesy did not carry her to the point of tears ; 
she was one of those who bear certain troubles 
without complaint, when they have only them- 
selves to blame, but to console themselves, 
they never forgive. 

Madame de Reygnac had twenty-eight years 
of comparative tranquillity, but not of rest. 
On one side, she had to dispute the remainder 
of her fortune with money lenders, whom she 
forced to commend her management; on the 
other side, she had to educate her son, whom 
she had made, trait for trait, upon the model 
of her husband, honest woman that she was. 

Meanwhile, when Gaston reached his major- 
ity, his mother had been able, by dint of great 


Hefiriette. 


1 18 

pains, to save up for him a small patrimony. 
It was a bright-colored future, and the count- 
ess almost believed herself a quarter of a cen- 
tury younger, when she saw again in her son 
the ways of her dead husband, the same care- 
less elegance, the same winning charms, the 
same way of concealing a prank under a kiss, 
as a poor comedienne conceals a hole in her 
dress under a bunch of roses. 

At first Madame de Reygnac was discour- 
aged, and being not so young as the first time, 
bent her head and resigned herself to it ; but 
when she realized what he had at stake, she 
roused herself from this beautiful resignation, 
and without saying one angry word, she gave 
her son some judicious advice, which might 
have been of service to Don Juan in person. 
They were no less good friends for that, but 
in their present situation, this judicious coun- 
sel was a simple luxury to Gaston. They lived 
as in the past, save that they went to live in 
the fifth story, back. To those who tried to 
pity them, the countess would say, “ My son 
has landed his boat too quickly, but what can 
you expect? One must forgive the follies of 
youth underneath all, he has a heart of gold.” 


Henriette. 


119 

It is certain, that whether her son’s heart 
was made of gold or silver, it was all that she 
had to offer in exchange for the fortune that 
she was looking for. The fortunes were 
not wanting ! but by a rigorous law of nature 
the fortunes were invariably fastened to an 
heiress like a pearl to a shell (the comparison 
was Gaston’s). 

“A marriage for money?” said he, “much 
obliged. If the heiress is ugly, then I prefer 
the relief committee, or should she be pretty, 
in that case, she would know sooner or later 
why I took her ; I have settled in advance upon 
the kind which I wait for.” 

After several attempts, Madame de Rey- 
gnac realized that the prodigal son was not 
yet ready for the fatted calf ; and that instead 
of a dowry, she must look for a position for 
him. A difficult undertaking! 

Gaston wanted nothing better. He was not 
wanting in intelligence or education ; he also 
had some seriousness, an easy thing to under- 
stand, since he had used so little of it until 
now ! But at this time counts were not in de- 
mand, at least for the lucrative offices, for the 
Republic gave them willingly to the others, and 


120 


Henriette. 


this young gentleman had not the means to 
serve his country for glory. 

At last came the 16th of May, and thanks 
to the overtures of the countess — who carried 
maternal love almost to the verge of intrigue, 
so people said — the ancient line of Reygnac 
added for the first time a sous-prefet among 
its descendants. Such is the abridged history 
of the countess. 

After a good night’s rest, the mother and 
son met again, at the breakfast table. The 
countess, delighted at seeing her dear Gaston, 
had an animation and gayety quite unknown 
to her. When they were alone she leaned 
upon the arm of her chair and said, looking at 
her auditor through her tortoise-shell lorg- 
nettes, “My dear boy, do you fancy that I 
have come here only to see your beautiful 
eyes? Do you know what brought me? I 
came to make you marry Henriette Loidreau.” 

“ Upon my word, my dear mamma, you are 
a little too fast ; I told her only three days 
ago, that she was precisely the only woman 
whom I never would marry.” 

All the excitement which had shone in the 
countess’s face w-as suddenly extinguished. 


He?iriette. 


I 2 1 


“What have you done?” groaned she. 
“ What caused you to quarrel with this young 
lady? ” 

“ We have not quarrelled. We are the best 
friends in the world; but Diable / to marry 
her? I would sooner become a Turk! ” 

“ Since when has she displeased you so 
much? ” 

“ Since a certain evening when she failed to 
be agreeable. Do not speak to me of these 
beautiful creatures made of money. One 
cannot look at them, even to admire, but what 
they imagine one wishes their money. A kind 
of warehouse where one cannot wander from 
stall to stall without a monsieur in white cravat 
walks behind you, his eyes upon your hands.” 

“Be still, all this is ridiculous! ” 

“ Ridiculous ! It was when this saucy bag- 
gage looked at me from the height of her 
grandeur. I made her come down from it, 
and I assure you, it did not take long.” 

“ You have hastened matters! ” 

“ Was it necessary to wait until she sent me 
a summons from an officer to think no more 
of her? ” 

“ Would to God that the officers never sum- 


122 


Henriette. 


moned you for anything worse ! In your place 
I know very well what I should think.” 

“And what would you think, if you 
please? ” 

“ That a bird who cries so loud has fear 
that she will be caged.” 

“ What then? ” 

“ If I had a mother with so much intelli- 
gence, I would give her carte blanche , and 
never molest her in any way.” 

“ You have not reflected upon all that would 
be said, if you succeeded, which will not hap- 
pen, nevertheless.” 

“ Electoral corruption ; an officer selling his 
vote to a candidate; a gentleman selling his 
name ; God knows what the papers would not 
discover about it! ” 

“Yes, but I know that we could manage all 
that!” 

“ Then, mother, this is the way we are situ- 
ated! This young lady has taken a dislike to 
me ; I do not like her ; you would make us 
perfectly miserable.” 

“ But this is not the question ; she is 
rich.” 

“ Over the escutcheon of a mason ! ” 


Henriette. 


123 


“ I did not know that you were so chivalrous, 
my son.” 

“ Ma foi, neither did I, I admit it, but I am, 
and it gives me pleasure. There is something 
good in me!” 

Madame de Reygnac got up and stood by 
the window watching the few people who passed 
by the sous-prefecture. Suddenly, after a si- 
lence, she turned and came straight to her son 
and said; “Ah! you gentleman, you can be 
chivalrous when it is agreeable to you ; one 
sees you time after time put on your grand 
airs in face of these plebeian heiresses before 
marriage, but, when once married, when you 
have become resigned to the misalliance, your 
fine scruples vanish. I know something about 
it. You understand me, do you not? I am 
.fifty years old and I live in the fifth story ; my 
legs are tired out with running to money lend- 
ers and business men, now that I have to walk. 

“ What did I gain by marrying into high rank ? 
I see nobody, save some courageous friends, 
from whom at New Years I receive some use- 
ful gifts. Meanwhile, have you ever heard me 
utter a complaint about the past? That does 
not prevent its being hard to grow old in a 


124 


Henriette. 


garret, and you will be glad to know, if you 
please, that I admire, least of all, the noble 



pride which keeps you 
from making me come 
down. It would have 

been better if you bad prevented my going 
up. You very chivalrous gentleman! ” 


Henriette. 


I2 5 


“ Say no more,” said Reygnac rising in his 
turn, pale as a ghost. “ I have believed until 
now that you had forgiven my father and me; 
but since it is not so, since you are my mother, 
a most patient creditor, but more severe than 
others, do as you please. Only understand 
the situation. It is necessary after what has 
passed that the offer should come from the 
young lady’s side, and I foresee several difficul- 
ties. As to myself, I will not make a move, 
but the day when you want my signature to 
the marriage contract, I am ready. If ever 
your daughter-in-law complains to you that I 
do not love her, that I neglect her, deceive 
her or dissipate her fortune, you will know how 
to reply to her.” 

He spoke in a trembling voice, and his eyes 
shone with a moist lustre. Bowing respect- 
fully to his mother, he left the room. 

“ If I am not very much mistaken, thought 
the countess,” whose penetration was not of the 
common order, “ Monsieur Gaston has some- 
thing else to sacrifice besides his scruples ; but 
we have nothing to do with sentiment, neither 
of us.” 


126 


Henrieite. 


CHAPTER X. 

The next day Reygnac went to Fresnau, to 
pay a visit, and, as one may suppose, his 
mother did not let him go alone. 

For the occasion, she found in the bottom 
of her trunk a black satin dress, nearly new, 
which gave her a grand look, so much so that 
Madame Loidreau commenced to talk to her 
in the third person, as she used to do to the 
proprietors of the farm where she spent her 
youth. 

Henriette turned pale, but just at this mo- 
ment Madame de Reygnac won her by a look, 
which seemed to say, No matter! ladies, like 
you and I, laugh at these things ; one sees mis- 
alliances in the best families. 

After a quarter of an hour’s conversation in 
the house, the countess understood by Loi- 
dreau’s uneasiness that it was time to ask to 
visit the park. They started out in two parties, 
the first composed of Loidreau and his wife 
with their noble guest, the second of Gaston 


Henriette. 


127 


and Henriette. At the end of a hundred steps 
or more the countess turned to admire the 
front. 

“ Superb ! ” exclaimed she, “ and how well 
the lawn is kept ! It calls to mind, with a little 
less extent, the garden of the -Elysee.” 

“Have you been there, madame? ” ques- 
tioned Loidreau, whom these words made prick 
up his ears. 

“ I ? ” replied the countess with a slight 
smile, “ I go there often, there is nothing that 
I like better in the world ; I have known the 
marshal since the time when we studied our 
catechism together/’ 

“ The devil! ” said the candidate, forgetting 
himself, “how then does it happen that your 
son has only a third-class position?” 

Madame de Reygnac had a discreet little 
cough. 

“Ah! Monsieur le Deputy, the district of 
Montescourt will produce a representative just 
as grand as any other ; but you are not ignorant, 
I think, of how much a division of the conser- 
vative party To be brief, they needed a 

sure man, and my son has devoted himself.” 

“ Then,” said Loidreau, who knew where 


128 


Henrietle. 


the shoe pinched, “they think of another 
conservative candidate at Paris? The Mar- 
quis de Barjols — is it not?” 

“Pooh!” said the countess, “we will talk 
again about it,” with an air that persuaded 
the worthy man that she had made her trip to 
Montescourt for no other purpose. 

“ Do you know, dear Madame Loidreau, 
what interested me the most when I lived in 
the country? it was my poultry yard.” 

During this time Henriette was saying to 
Gaston, “ It seems you received a lovely 
visit day before yesterday.” 

“A lovely visit? Ah! Yes, Mademoiselle de 
Barjols. You know it already?” 

“ Does not one know everything in the coun- 
try, principally at election time? How did 
you like Sabine? ” 

“Oh! O mademoiselle! Do you take me 
for a novice? How foolish! It was long ago 
that I learned never to reply to a woman when 
she asks me how old I think she is, or what I 
think of another woman! ” 

“Very good! you know what is proper. I 
am not a woman for you. Let me be your 
comrade.” 


Henriette. 


129 


“ I read a fable recently where there was a 
question similar to that ; but one saw by it that 
a wolf who became a shepherd, is always a 
wolf.” 

“ It is my opinion, if all the sheep were like 
you, the wolves would have scanty living. 
Come now, admit that Sabine is charming.” 

“Not at all; she is disagreeable, tiresome, 
ugly, and blonde into the bargain, I cannot en- 
dure blondes.” 

“ So be it. I am sure that you are fasci- 
nated with my old playmate. As for me, she 
is my ideal and if I was not too proud to be 
envious ” 

“Envious? You? My faith! I think on the 
contrary that few human creatures can look 
at you without envy.” 

Henriette stopped. The smile disappeared 
from her lips and in her eyes one could read 
bitter suffering. 

“Monsieur de Reygnac,” said she, “you 
think me very happy? Well, if God, supposing 
he exists, could perform a miracle for me, if I 
could become, to-morrow, not Sabine de Bar- 
jols, but that countrywoman pulling grass in 
the walks, while her child rolls on the turf, I 


130 


Henriette. 


would thank him on my bended knees, until 
the last day of my life.” 

Gaston looked at this girl’s impassioned and 
fatal face — who did not believe in God, and 
avowed it with a dark despair. 

“You speak,” murmured he lowering his 
voice, “as if you had committed some crime.” 

“I have not committed any crime, no more 
than Sabine de Barjols or that beggar, but 
they can be happy; I, never.” 

She stopped, with quick breath and tearful 
eyes. Gaston, a little embarrassed, said in a 
pleasant tone: 

“I’ll wager that you received from Paris 
this morning a box with one dress lacking, or 
that your uncle has tired you with his coming 
election.” 

She made a sign, “No,” without speaking, 
while two large tears rolled down her cheeks. 
Then stamping her foot, as if irritated with her- 
self, she said, continuing her walk : 

“You have just seen what nobody has seen 
since my mother was taken away, but I have 
neither shame nor regret, for I know that you 
will become a true friend ; I understood what 
kind of a man you were, the evening when you 


He?iriette. 


131 

told me that I played badly before every- 
body.” 

“It was not true, mademoiselle, only ” 

“ Only you felt the need of saying something 
disagreeable to me.” 

“Admit, that between us both, that evening, 
you were the first to be disagreeable.” 

“ Let us not speak of that evening ; we acted 
like two children, but it is ended, is it not. 
Now let us rejoin the others.” 

As to the others, they had fallen into the 
electoral, beaten path. “ Rest easy, my dear 
deputy,” said Gaston’s mother, “ we will carry 
your election with a high hand. You have the 
ladies on your side and when they will a thing 
Is it not so, Madame Loidreau? ” 

The good soul, who had never known what 
it was to have a will of her own, replied with 
a broad smile : 

“ Oh ! certainly, madame la countess.” 

When Reygnac was once more on the road 
to Montescourt with his mother, he said: 

“ I hope very much you will not compro- 
mise us, here or elsewhere, to sustain the elec- 
toral campaign to the profit of this great man 
of the country. Rest certain that he will be 


132 


Henriette. 


strong enough to get out of his difficulties 
alone.” 

“You know very well what enterprise I 
have undertaken ; but let me tell you, this girl 
is superb, with her olive complexion, and large 
eyes, with dark circles underneath. Her uncle 
told me more than a dozen times, that she had 
five millions. Think of it! What a fortune ! ” 

“Assuredly,” said Gaston ; “ but if I could, 
for a tenth of that price, treat with a young 
girl of our own station, well brought up and 
who pleased me ! There are some things about 
this girl that almost frighten me.” 

“You have become a coward! What could 
you do with a genteel young lady, having 25,- 
000 pounds income, an enormous income for 
us? You would vegetate; you would be 
neither rich nor poor ; you would have to take 
the bread from your own mouth to give me a 
living. No, my friend, no illusions. To be 
miserably poor at your age is possible, but at 
mine one gets tired of it. Do you wish me to 
begin anew my yesterday’s sermon? What is 
said, is said, is it not? ” 

“ Enough said ! ” sighed Gaston, accustomed 
to the maternal yoke ; “ but arrange it so that 


Henriette. 


133 


they will ask my hand with all formality. All 
that I promise, is to be a good sort of a man 
and not to refuse to marry her, so as not to 
give pain to anybody.” 

“ I do not ask more of you ; oh ! by the way, 
I have offered to take a certain step for Loi- 
dreau; I wish to go to Barjols to-morrow, but 
I will go alone if you fear your presence will 
have a compromising look.” 

For more than one reason the young man 
wished to accompany his mother ; on one ac- 
count, the tendency which he saw in her for 
politics, caused him a little uneasiness; but 
another reason was he felt a morbid longing 
to see Sabine. Love! what foolishness! Sim- 
ple curiosity to examine in cold blood, and lis- 
ten with a calm ear to this charming girl, who, 
on the whole, had turned his head, with an in- 
explicable suddenness. Is she really so fasci- 
nating? Would her eyes, when seen the 
second time, have the same powerful attrac- 
tion? Would her voice, heard again, seem so 
sweet? Such are the beautiful thoughts that 
one indulges in, when on the point of falling 
in love. “ If you go alone to Barjols,” said 
Gaston, “ Raoul will think that I am vexed 


134 


Henriette. 


with him. At his first visit we parted coldly 
on account of this same question of candida- 
ture. Between us, you have undertaken a 
mission ” 

“ Have you not read, that on the eve of an 
eclipse, Columbus was asked to give the moon 
to the savages? It is useless to add, that he 
managed it without compromising himself with 
the sun ; I shall do as he did, and Loidreau 
will see his candidature shining anew in the 
starry heavens. Be tranquil; your mother is 
no fool.” 

The next afternoon, Madame de Reygnac 
and her son saw the gates of the Chateau de 
Barjols open before them. 


Henriette. 


135 


CHAPTER XI. 


OMPLETELY demolished 
r A during the time of the 
religious wars, the old 
mansion was rebuilt on 
the ruins, under the more 
quiet and less imposing form 
of a Louis XIII. pavilion. 
Only one story, surmounted by a 
Mansard roof. They built in a 
substantial manner in those days, 
for, excepting the next day after 
a heavy storm or at the close of a 
rigorous winter, workmen had 
rarely put their feet inside this 
noble dwelling since they placed the last tile 
there, nearly two hundred and fifty years ago. 
The bricks of the walls had become dark, the 
framework of the windows and doors was 
grizzly, the roofs had become a dull shade, and 
the zinc of the ridge pieces shone no longer with 



i3 6 


Henriette. 


a metallic brilliancy. The massive oak blinds 
alone, carefully repainted, had the whiteness 
of linen compared with the whole, which was 
a little gloomy, but less so than one would im- 
agine. A healthy and pleasant old age is 
never sad. In leaving the parish road, one 
crossed a small lawn, where set in grass were 
red patches of geraniums. Then came what 
was properly called the court, paved with 
stones from the neighboring stream, and bor- 
dered by large orange trees, the putting out of 
which about the 15th of April, and the taking in 
the 15th of October, were the two great events 
in the life of this quiet household. Other 
smaller plants, oleanders and myrtles, were ar- 
ranged according to the old custom, upon the 
five steps of the semi-elliptical stairs leading to 
the door, in brown boxes or varnished jars. 
The vestibule with its lozenge-shaped marbles, 
covered with a rustic straw mat, was the re- 
pository for all sorts of objects. There, were 
the overshoes and cane which the old marquis 
used in his walks, Sabine’s garden hat, her 
pruning shears, her prayer book and a certain 
basket ornamented with red wool, which the 
poor people and their children knew well for 


Henriette. 


137 


miles around. Finally, if one saw upon the 
old hall table, some crushed violets, a riding 
whip, a felt riding hood, pair of gloves and a 
meerschaum pipe, they belonged to M. le 
Marquis, who has torn himself away from the 
pleasures of his handsome first floor suite in 
the rue de Marigan, to make a short visit to 
his mother and sister, to his colts and the Mu- 
nicipal Council. 

Gaston de Reygnac and the dowager were 
introduced by a gray-haired man servant, easily 
recognized as one who had known the old 
Faubourg. It was enough to see the way he 
received, and announced through the open 
folding doors, the names of the two visitors. 
At the end of a very long drawing room, lighted 
by two windows and a glass door which led 
into the garden, the Marquise de Barjols was 
sewing, seated in a high-backed chair placed 
in a niche near one of the windows. At a lit- 
tle distance from her, the graceful figure of her 
daughter emerged from a pile of ivy and moss. 
Around her were a half-dozen of young girls 
in white bonnets, crouching down close at 
each other’s heels rummaging with activity 
among the green. The long garlands twined 





“ At a little distance from her, the graceful figure of her daughter 
emerged from a pile of ivy and moss,” 


Henriette. 


139 


upon the floor, showed what kind of work they 
were busy with. While the new comers effected 
their entrance, and the marquise, with a grand 
air, took the four steps prescribed by etiquette 
to meet them, the group of young village 
maidens, upon a sign from their mistress, 
disappeared without noise through a back 
gate. 

“ Madame,” said the Countess de Reygnac 
with an old-style courtesy, “your son is my 
son’s friend; permit me to hope that I am 
not a stranger to you.” 

“ It has been several years,” replied the 
marquise smiling, “ that we have known each 
other through our children. It is very little, 
madame. But I have become very provincial 
and see only a little of the world during the 
six weeks that I pass in Paris every spring.” 

Gaston in his turn greeted Madame de Bar- 
jols, who welcomed him like a man of her 
world, without the least allusion to his official 
title. Then he approached Sabine, cleverly 
manoeuvring to remain seated near her after 
the general exchange of first civilities. He 
looked at her without her appearing to notice 
it, and was astonished at himself to feel that 


140 


Henriette. 


he slightly trembled, for he was not romantic 
or timid in the least. 

She slowly pulled off, with a movement full 
of grace, the long gloves that she had put on 
to select sprigs of moss, and brushed off list- 
lessly with her white hand, any that remained 
attached to her dress. 

Have you noticed that one should see truly 
refined women in their own homes, others else- 
where? Surprised thus, in the intimacy of her 
home life, Sabine was extremely gracious, and 
Gaston was astonished at one thing, that was, 
that he had not admired her more, three days 
before; but this time he made amends for 
lost time. 

For all this, the conversation threatened to 
lag a little in the corner where the young 
people sat. 

“ My brother is not at home,” said Mile, 
de Barjols ; “ he has gone on horseback to visit 
the farms, he will be sorry to miss a part of 
your visit.” 

If politeness would have permitted it, Rey- 
gnac would have owned that he did not par- 
take of his distress. 

“And you,” replied he, “ are you going to 


ITenriette. 


141 

scold me for interrupting your work ? Do 
you know to whom I compared you upon en- 
tering the room just now? ” 

“Oh! yes,” said Sabine laughing, “to 
Calypso surrounded by her nymphs — Raoul 
said so an hour ago, it seems it is striking.” 

“I thought I had surprised Valleda putting 
away her harvest of mistletoe. I suspect you 
are making an arch of triumph; may I ask 
what great man is coming, it interests me a 
little, Monsieur le ? ” 

“ What ! Is your police not better informed ! 
Let us see: think. Who can it be! ” 

“Theprefet? but no, I should know it. The 
bishop? ” 

“ Better than that.” 

“ The minister? ” 

“ Better than that.” 

“The marshal?” 

“ Better than that, if you had heard the ser- 
mon Sunday ” 

“ I have it, you are dressing the altar for 
Corpus Christus day.” 

“You have guessed it, monsieur. We are 
very much behind the times at Barjols, for we 
still have processions, and the seigneurs have 


142 


Henriette. 


kept up forced labor, as you must have 
seen.” 

“Yes! forced labor and also the tithe. Only 
they are the ones who pay it to the rustics. 
You see my police is not so very bad.” 

Sabine mechanically drew near her work, 
and Gaston watched her white hands moving 
gracefully among the green; observing that 
this silent inspection was not absolutely to the 
young lady’s taste, he took some sprigs of 
green and tried to do the work himself. 

“ Monsieur,” said Sabine with a sly gravity, 
“ take care, you will obtain the indulgences. 
In your position, it is serious.” 

“ Why? Do you believe me excommuni- 
cated? ” 

“ Not yet, perhaps, but you are a sous-pre- 
fet!” 

“ On account of my sins. Meanwhile keep 
your idle story for. another, I beg of you. My 
mother is here to tell you that I believe in 
God, and that I have been baptized.” 

“ Is it possible ! ” 

“Now,” said Gaston, “do not mock me too 
much. I met a few days since a young girl 
brought up in a convent, who is an atheist.” 


Henriette. 


143 


“Oh!” cried Sabine looking at him with 
her large honest eyes, “ how horrible ! ” 

Reygnac did not say that the person he 
talked of was Henriette Loidreau, but, within 
himself, he compared the two girls, the two 
natures, and the two lives so opposite. He 
looked at his mother absorbed by her conver- 
sation with the marquise. He wanted to say 
to her: “Look at this one. How could you 
expect that I should think of the other! ” 
Meanwhile, courtesy exacted that he should 
talk to Madame de Barjols. He went, with 
some regret, to seat himself by the side of her 
arm chair. 

. “ Monsieur,” said this excellent lady, “ Raoul 
likes you very much, he has often told me so.” 

“Madame, it is the best praise that his 
mother could give me, and above all, the least 
merited.” 

The marquise was a woman with white hair, 
an average intelligence, but with one quality 
which absorbed all others, goodness. Her 
sexagenarian smile of indescribable sweetness, 
called to mind the last puffs of mild air which 
pass over snow before winter has completely 
iced it. She had known life by her troubles, 


144 


Henriette. 


rather than by her faults, for she had suffered, 
but never done wrong. For some time she 
had lived only to devote herself to others. 
Gaston, in spite of himself, compared her to 
his own mother. What a difference! To tell 
the truth — and he owned it to himself — there 
was reason in it. 

Suddenly the marquise’s still beautiful eyes 
sparkling with pleasure were turned toward 
the steps which led into the garden. Some one 
in riding boots ascended them exclaiming gayly, 
“ My humble respects to my superior chief. 
How are you, oppressor of the people, blind 
supporter of the government, leech of the small 
purse, tool of the candidates ? ” 

Raoul stopped suddenly, biting his tongue. 
He did not know that his friend’s mother was 
there, and asked himself as to whether his 
pleasantries would be to the taste of the lady 
with whom he was no favorite; in fact, the 
countess had always pretended to believe that 
her son was the victim of the bad example of 
others. 

“A heart of gold ! ” said she ; “ but unfortu- 
nately easily influenced.” 

She returned rather coldly the marquis’ 


Henriette. 


T 45 


greeting, who excused himself for not having 
been to see her in Paris; they exchanged a 
few words ; as soon as it was possible, Raoul 
arose. 

“ Dear mamma,” said he, “ if madame will 
allow us, we will go and leave you to talk to- 
gether. I must show my horses and my sis- 
ter’s chickens. Will you come too, Sabine?” 

The three young people made a tour of the 
stables, barns, poultry yards, and park. All 
was kept properly, but without extravagance. 
One could find, without looking very hard, 
grass in some of the walks. The cows were 
all merely native breed, but they gave enough 
milk for the inhabitants of the chateau, and 
for half a dozen sick children in the village. 
The chickens' were not entered upon the 
“ stud book ” for thoroughbred cocks, but these 
fowls of simple habits did not feel that they 
had lowered themselves in laying eggs. 

“ Our wealthy neighbors at Fresnau,” said 
Sabine, “swear only by the Durham, South- 
down, and Brahma Pootra. They are more 
distinguished, but less practical. No milk, 
butter, or fresh eggs from those high-bred ani- 
mals. Here we are less remarkable, but we 
10 


146 


Henriette . 


can have an omelette without sending to the 
market.” 

Raoul, who yet bore a grudge against his 
friend for his fidelity to the instructions given 
in favor of the candidature of Loidreau, 
shrugged his shoulders and burst out laughing. 

“ My poor sister! The high functionary who 
listens to you now, will pity you and your ani- 
mals. You are only a peasant woman dressed 
in Sunday clothes. Tell me of Fresnau, where 
the shepherdess does the honors in silk stock- 
ings, satin slippers, and lace dresses.” 

With a little more temper than this inno- 
cent pleasantry required, perhaps, Gaston re- 
plied: 

“ Speak for yourself. Every one has his 
ideal. You will allow me to have my own 
opinion.” 

“ Does not Henriette Loidreau please you? ” 
asked Sabine. 

“ To say that she does not please me would 
be affectation. But she is like the animals in 
her park, of little practical beauty. Do not, 
if you please, Mile., judge jne by the chari- 
table insinuations of your brother.” 

“Oh! ” replied the young girl laughing, “I 


Henriette. 


147 


do not judge people so quickly and only judge 
them by what I see and hear.” 

The conversation continued in this intimate 
tone, the presence of the marquis making it 
easy. They visited the stables, the only nov- 
elty about the place, constructed under the 
direction and after the taste of the young pro- 
prietor. When they went into the park, Sa- 
bine, with scissors in hand, stopped every little 
while to cut flowers to make a bouquet for her 
mother’s guest. 

A few moments after they returned to the 
drawing room, Madame de Reygnac spoke of 
ordering their carriage. 

“ The carriage ! ” exclaimed Raoul, “ why, 
my dear madame, your coachman will not lis- 
ten to that ; you may be sure that he counts on 
his dinner and that of his horses. Leave Bar- 
jols when they are laying the cloth ! You do 
not know the customs of this place. All the 
people about would say that we were on bad 
terms.” 

It was still daylight when they entered the 
dining room, whose walls were covered with 
fine tapestries celebrated throughout the coun- 
try; this, with the old silver arranged without 


148 


Henriette. 


pretension on the side-board, was the only 
sign of luxury in the room. The dinner was 
simple but of that abundant simplicity which 
indicates the custom of generous living. One 
single servant, the old man with white hair, 
passed the dishes quietly and without haste, 
like a servant who had known for a long time 
the tastes and desires of his masters. They 
talked quietly. Sabine, to beautify herself, had 
simply tucked up her hair, and put a ribbon 
about her neck. The odor of new-mown hay 
came in abundance through the open windows, 
and when the tinkling of a bell from the neigh- 
boring church was heard, the young girl lowered 
her eyes for a second’s meditation. Reygnac 
felt his heart throb with a pious emotion 
hitherto unknown to him. 

When he was in the carriage with his mother 
she said: 

“What a difference between Fresnau and 
this place ! ” for at heart the luxuriousness of 
the Loidreaus pleased her. 

“Ah! yes,” replied Gaston, “what a differ- 
ence ! ” And until they reached Montescourt 
he did not speak again. 


Henriettc. 


149 


CHAPTER XII. 

One must not think from this that the young 
sous-prefet of Montescourt passed the best 
part of his time at Fresnau, Barjols, and other 
houses, where he was equally as well received 
as in the first two. Gaston de Reygnac worked 
a great deal in his office, they thought he 
worked too much. While waiting to know 
what would come of the Revolution of the 16th 
of May, this bold fellow had effected one 
change which Erasme Lefevre could not easily 
pardon ; he arose every day at eight o’clock, 
and opened, himself, the administrative letters. 
Still more, he had the outrageous custom of 
reading and understanding everything that 
he signed, and only signed polite letters and 
agreements written in good French, which the 
stern red-tapist called “ corrupting the formu- 
las.” 

Reygnac in reality could not take part in 
that sublime rudeness, which is the fundamen- 


Henriette. 


! 5 ° 


tal basis of the written communications be- 
tween the government and the people who 
style themselves the most civilized in the world. 
He could only admit under pretext of equality, 
that one established any dif- 
ference between the tavern ^jl 
keeper’s daughter asking to jr 
continue herfather’sbusi- ' ' Jl 

ness and ..dll J, 




canoness 
asking authority to 
open an orphan asylum. One 
day, patient as he was, he was obliged 
to throw his secretary out of the office. The 
man, with a coarse slip of the tongue, in writing 
to one of the highest barons of European 
finance, persisted in commencing his letter with 


Henriette. 


T 5 r 

these words, “ Monsieur le banquier.” But the 
most unpardonable crime to Reygnac was to 
admit everybody. The greater part of the time 
those who came to see him, came to make 
complaints about the office ; each visit was one 
grievance more. Soon the employes from the 
first to last were in a state of mild resignation 
with regard to their chief. 

When his duties permitted he made his es- 
cape with pleasure to go into the country to 
the places where his presence could be most 
useful. One day he took the train to visit the 
insane asylum situated about three leagues 
from Montescourt. This establishment, like 
several others of the same kind, was once an 
old monastery known by the name of Saint 
Pardoult. It is situated at the bottom of a 
half-deserted gorge, the larger part occupied 
by buildings and the body of the park entirely 
closed by walls. 

What had once been a beautiful, religious 
retreat with imposing architecture, had be- 
come, on account of its brick walls, board par- 
titions, and iron ceilings, something unformed, 
mutilated, and hideous, which made the heart 
heavier than the wildest waste. In this asy- 


T 5 2 


Henriette. 


lum — singular word to choose to designate a 
place where people are sent generally in spite 
of themselves — one found a thousand persons 
of all ages and sexes, though often the visi- 
tors would be embarassed to tell the age or sex 
of the miserable creatures they saw. At the 
head of this institution for the insane, the de- 
partment places a man who is physician and 
director at the same time. His salary of one 
hundred dollars a month, with apartments, 
heating, and the right to the vegetables in the 
garden, composed his income. His work con- 
sisted of caring for these poor creatures, to cure 
them very rarely, and to overtake them when 
they tried to escape, which was infinitely less 
rare. 

He was also instructed to feed them with an 
economy, all the more faithfully guarded as 
the superintendent is responsible for all ex- 
cess of outlay. 

One should hasten to say that Dr. Doniol, 
which was the name of the superintendent of 
the institution when Gaston made his visit, 
performed his duties conscientiously and faith- 
fully. Outside of his professional duties, which 
absorbed the greater part of the day, he di- 


Henriette. 


1 53 


vided his leisure time between h'is family, 
music, and natural history. 

His family consisted of four persons, 
Madame Doniol and three daughters, all of 
age, whose only recreation was in visiting the 
“paying patients” during their lucid mo- 
ments. At first this exchange of society was 
imposed upon them by the sympathizing doc- 
tor as a professional duty, for he claimed that 
the conversation of healthy people had a happy 
influence upon the invalids. These conjec- 
tures were not wholy contradicted by the re- 
sults ; but while the doctor’s patients seemed 
to improve upon the whole, his somewhat fee- 
ble daughters, on their part, experienced a 
metamorphosis the reverse. One could not 
say that they had become insane, but it was 
impossible to deny that they were beginning to 
be “singular.” 

Before they came to Saint Pardoult the 
mother and her daughters were very naturally 
looked upon as at the head of society in the 
county town of the district, of which the asy- 
lum formed one of the hamlets, being two or 
three kilometres from the town. 

They had visited with the mayor’s wife and 


154 


He7iriette. 


the curate’s sister, been on intimate terms with 
the postmaster and justice of peace, at open 
war with the wife of the rival physician, on 
account of scientific brotherhood. 

But as soon as the ladies of Saint Pardoult, 
as they were called in his little world there, 
associated with the patients of the husband 
and father, their contact with the outside world 
became less frequent. It was not, as one would 
think, that the outside world abandoned their 
drawing room, always embellished by the pres- 
ence of one or two of the insane. It was the 
ladies themselves, who cared no longer for the 
conversation of the honest country people, 
when they regularly came in contact with hero- 
ines of romance, millionaires, and princesses, 
for these good creatures took seriously, all the 
hallucinations of the poor creatures. They 
gave them their titles, and talked with them of 
all their hopes and troubles. They said very 
seriously, “Has your majesty slept well?” 
“ Did the Prince of Galles send you a bouquet 
this morning?” or “ Has the bank yet paid 
you your five millions? ” 

How, then, after this, interest yourself in an 
old woman who boasts that her preserves are 


Henriette. 


*55 


put up in sugar! It resulted in such a com- 
plete rupture with the outside world, that all 
outside disturbance died at the foot of the 
asylum’s high walls, and no sound went out of 
it. No strangers came there, except the in- 
spectors and magistrates, who came to make 
their official visits, and sign the certificates of 
the destined ones. 

When the heavy gate was closed upon the 
old barouche with drawn curtains, which 
brought from the neighboring station a new 
patient, he was dead to all the world, as much 
as if he had joined the Trappists. 

Dr. Doniol received the sous-prefet, whom 
he had never met, with the deference due his 
station, because he was director of the Saint 
Pardoult Asylum, and was prouder of his rank as 
functionary than of all other physical or moral 
qualities that he could have. After a short 
conversation in an office strewed with animals 
dried and stuffed or preserved in alcohol, Gas- 
ton and the doctor commenced their visit- to 
this immense establishment. 

To see the order which reigned throughout, 
the strict discipline, the rigorous classification, 
the cleanliness, the care to avoid the most ex- 


He7iriette. 


i5 6 

cited ones, one could believe himself aboard 
a packet ship with three classes of passen- 
gers. 

The “ departments ” where the poorer class 
of both sexes, clothed in uniforms which resem- 
bled those of a prison, were packed in the 
halls, work rooms, dormitories, and yards. 

The “ mediums ” or those whose friends 
could pay a small sum, were better clothed, if 
not better nourished, enjoying greater freedom 
and the privilege of being alone, which the 
greater part used with unsociable zeal. 

Lastly, invalids of the first class, whose board 
varied, but was generally as high as five or six 
hundred francs a month, an enormous price for 
the country. They occupied apartments sepa- 
rated from the large house — namely some lit- 
tle houses scattered about the park, well kept 
and full of flowers. For two hours Reygnac 
walked about this strange cemetery, where the 
bodies are living, but the soul seems dead. 

With his one key which opened all the doors, 
the doctor took him from one ward to another, 
without preparing him for any changes. He 
wished to see all — it was his duty and right. 
His heart ached in going through the wards 


Henriette. 


x 57 


where the poor idiots, dressed like women, were 
seated in circles upon seats made expressly for 
them, making grimaces, crying, dumb, or re- 
peating over and over again the same thing. 
In other places he was distressed to hear their 
heartrending cries. They opened a door, and 
he saw a bathing room with three or four bath- 
tubs shut with a cover and padlock, which left 
only room for the shaved head of an hysteri- 
cal patient to appear. In passing one of the 
cottages half concealed by trees, he heard a 
piano touched by skilful hands. Reygnac and 
the doctor entered. A young lady extremely 
pretty and well dressed, with a distinguished 
air, arose and welcomed them with perfect ease 
and grace. She was a very religious woman 
and awoke one day in her husband’s chateau, 
dreaming that she had received in the night 
the frightful visit of the Anti-Christ. She be- 
lieved herself damned and on the point cf giv • 
ing birth to some monster consecrated to the 
infernal one. 

Finally they ended with the chapel. There, 
two or three religious ones were praying around 
the sacred lamp. Twenty of the insane were 
seated on the benches, looking at the pictures 


158 


Henriette. 


with a sanctimonious air and mechanically turn- 
ing their rosaries, or prostrate on the floor, 
beating their breasts with heavy groans. At 
the foot of the statue of the Mater Dolorosa an 
unknown person was kneeling at a prayer desk, 
her face buried in her hands. Her dress and 
attitude indicated a genteel person and not 
insane. Reygnac thought it might be one of 
the doctor’s family, and without asking any 
questions passed by. 

“There is nothing more,” said Doctor Do- 
niol, “ but to show you my books and beg of 
you to sign them, a thing your predecessors 
were not very prompt to do. I could tell you 
of some who have come to Montescourt, and 
gone away, without ever having stepped inside 
of Saint Pardoult. Then people complain 
that the insane asylums lack inspection ! 
Whose fault is it? ” 

Gaston turned the leaves of the enormous 
book where, for several years, long lines of 
names written in large letters extended over 
the ruled pages of numerous columns. At the 
last division one read at long distances, “ gone 
away cured,” but oftener when the column did 
not remain blank, one read “ died.” 


Henriette. 


159 



All at once Reygnac started and point- 
ing his finger to a line said “ Widow Loi- 
dr6au! Is it the wife of the elder dep- 
uty? Is it possible that she is here! ” 
“Yes, monsieur le sous prefet. At 
first she was taken to a large institu- 
tion near Paris, since, for rea-‘ 
sons of which I do not know, 
she was se- 
cretly placed 
under my 
care about 


“ All at once Reygnac started, and pointing his finger to a line 
said, ‘ Widow Loidreau ! ’ ” 



i6o 


Henriette. 


one year ago. I must say the Paris special- 
ists are often excessive in their charges.” 

“ But,” questioned Gaston, “why is Mme. 
Loidreau's presence at Saint Pardoult a secret? 
Nobody has ever spoken to me of it! ” 

“A professional secret, monsieur. Except- 
ing you and the republic’s attorney, nobody 
has a right to know the name of a single inmate, 
and remember, if you please, you are bound 
like myself to secrecy.” 

Doctor Doniol spoke to the walls ; his visi- 
tor was not listening. So Henriette Loi- 
dreau’s mother was there! Instead of that 
luxurious home which was her own, she lived 
some leagues from Fresnau, secretly in an in- 
sane asylum ! Poor woman ! 

“What do you think of her condition?” 
asked the young man with an interest easily 
understood. 

“We have,” said the doctor, “a very char- 
acteristic case of puerperal mania. Maternity 
often costs the life of a woman and sometimes 
it takes away their reason, oftener when they 
have reached a certain age, which was, as you 
are aware, the case with this lady. Strangely 
enough, this mental disorder often manifests 


Henriette. 


161 


itself by the besetting idea of infanticide. 
Madame Loidreau has not killed her child, 
thank God! but she believes she has. The 
great suffering of this pious creature is, as I 
understood it, not to be able to repent of her 
crime.” 

“ Is this kind of insanity incurable? ” 

“ On principle, no, quite the contrary ; but I 
have no hopes of curing the lady we speak of.” 

“ Is she quiet? ” 

“Too much so; she refuses to speak to any- 
body. My wife and daughters have tried in 
vain to amuse her. Pursued, no doubt, by the 
thought of her imagined crime, she conceals 
herself and mistrusts everybody. She fears 
probably being pursued, for every morning 
she hurriedly reads her newspapers. For sev- 
eral months now, she has constantly carried 
with her a copy of Figaro carefully hidden 
in a bag.” 

“ I would like to see her close by.” 

“We can meet her on her way when she 
leaves the chapel, were you saw her just now, 
without mistrusting it. But you will not get 
her to say one word.” 

Five minutes later, Gaston and the doctor 
11 


162 


Henriette. 


saw the lady coming toward them, having in her 
hand the alluded-to bag. In spite of her de- 
rangement, her face yet showed traces of great 
beauty. One would almost have known her 
by her resemblance to her daughter. At her 
approach, Reygnac took off his hat and ad- 
vanced toward her some steps. 

“ Madame,” said he, “ I come to give you 
some news of your daughter Henriette.” 

The woman started as if stricken with ter- 
ror, she looked at Gaston with that cautious 
sly look that one sees on the face of a detect- 
ive, then she turned her eyes toward the doc- 
tor, whom she seemed particularly to fear. 
Upon a sign from the young man he withdrew 
some distance. 

“ Have you no word to send to your daugh- 
ter? ” asked Gaston in a low tone. “Will you 
not be glad to speak to a friend about her? ” 

“ Do you come from her? ” said the sick 
lady hesitatingly, > “ who will prove to me that 
you are a friend? How do I know that she 
really sends you? ” 

These words, truth and falsehood, do not 
have the same meaning when the lamp of rea- 
son is extinguished. Gaston replied without 


Henriette. 163 

scruple, curious to know what vagaries he was 
to hear. 

“ Would I be able to find you here otherwise? 
I come on her account and I know all.” 

Madame Loidreau seemed to make a violent 
effort to reflect. She asked, fixing her scared 
eyes upon the stranger who stood before her, 
“ Perhaps you are a lawyer? ” 

“ Yes. Will you tell me what troubles you? ” 

“ I am not troubled for myself. All that one 
could make me suffer, is nothing to what I 
have suffered. What I have done, monsieur, 
was for my daughter.” 

“You love her very much, do you not?” 
The poor woman’s face shone with a passion- 
ate tenderness as she replied : 

“ I committed a crime for her! But if I am 
discovered, if they punish me, my daughter 
also perhaps would be punished ! ” 

“You have committed no crime,” said Gas- 
ton, “you are deceived, the child is alive, I 
have seen him.” 

“ Impossible ! I made it disappear myself ; 
I had to do it for Henriette’s interest.” 

“ Your daughter is rich enough to be willing 
to divide her fortune with her brother.” 


164 Henriette. 

At these words, Madame Loidreau’s face 
assumed an expression of despair and horror. 

“Ah! unhappy creature that I am!” cried 
she, wringing her hands, “You know nothing, 
you have come to set a trap for me. Leave 
me, hateful man ! ” 

And, without her interlocutor’s daring to 
follow her, she ran away with a swiftness won- 
derful for her age. 

“ Poor woman ! ” said Reygnac to the doc- 
tor when he rejoined him, “ she shows a singu- 
lar mixture of confusion and logic.” 

“ The wheel work is always there, but the 
machinery works wrong. This is the first time 
that I have seen her speak to a stranger.” 

“ Does her family visit her? ” 

“Ah! monsieur le sous-prefet, the families! 
I have no need to enjoin upon them the duty 
of quiet for my patients.” 

One hour later, Reygnac reached his home 
and found there the candidate Loidreau and 
his niece, come to return the countess’ call of 
the preceding week. As it was late, Henri- 
ette and her uncle soon arose to take their de- 
parture, but, in conducting them to their car- 
riage, Madame de Reygnac managed to remain 


He?iriette. 


* 6 5 

in the background with M. Loidreau. They 
talked together for about five minutes, when 
the good man left with a radiant face. 

On her side, the young girl talked to Gas- 
ton, who had, it seemed to her, a very sober 
face. 

“ It seems that you go out a great deal,” 
said she to him. 

“ It is my business; it is necessary to show 
myself among the good people.” 

“And what portion of your good people has 
had the honor to see you to-day? ” 

“ I went,” replied Gaston with diplomacy, 
“ to inspect the track of a new railroad.” 

Henriette seemed in good spirits, and quite 
disposed to talk, but the count let the conver- 
sation drop. Seeing the elegance and smile 
of this beautiful girl, he thought of the poor 
insane woman he saw at Saint Pardoult, and 
in spite of himself, he felt a grudge against the 
girl, that she could be happy, while so near 
her mother, yet separated in such a manner. 

If he could have known all that was at the 
bottom of that soul at this moment, it would 
not have been for the poor creature deprived 
of reason and intelligence that he would have 


i66 


He?iriette. 


had the most pity. When the landau left 
the court, Madame de Reygnac took her son’s 
arm and drew him mysteriously into the gar- 
den. 

“I have just given Monsieur Loidreau two 
good pieces of news.” 

“Is that why he left in such good spirits? 
Has he been decorated?” 

“Not yet, but what is better for him, the 
committees now urge the Marquis de Barjols 
to withdraw his name as candidate.” 

“ Knowing Raoul’s love of quiet, I think 
they will have no trouble in gaining his con- 
sent ; and are you the one who has done this? ” 

“Not at all; you are the one; ask the per- 
son who has just left here; I have made him 
think that you wished to be his unknown ben- 
efactor; if I had not prevented it, he would 
have kissed your hands.” 

“ Y ou did well to prevent it. And the second 
news? ” 

“ Still better yet. The marshal in his trip 
which has been organized, consents to stop at 
Montescourt. For a moment I really believed 
that our man would push his niece into your 
arms forthwith.” 


Henriette. 


167 


“Ah ! my dear mother, you are so clever that 
you startle me ! The marshal here ! Do you 
really believe this? ” 

“We shall be sure of it in two days, but I 
am certain of it. They "will bestir themselves 
readily for us at the Elysee. My son, you will 
see great things; it is I who tell you so! ” 

“I believe anything possible now. You 
frighten me, I repeat it. What a pity that 
one cannot offer you an office! ” 

“ Much obliged ; I prefer to busy myself 
with the wedding trousseau. It is easier.” 

“ But you would be sure, at least, of not 
making two people unhappy then.” 


i68 


Henriette. 


CHAPTER XIII. 



HE countess’s 
information was soon 
confirmed on all sides. A week 
had not passed before paragraphs, discreetly 
conceived, appeared in certain journals an- 
nouncing to the public that : 

“ The only conservative candidate in the 



Henriette. 


169 


district of Montescourt seems to be M. Loi- 
dreau, deputy retiring.” Almost at the same 
time the same papers said “ M. Loidreau, re- 
tiring deputy and conservative candidate for 
the. department of Montescourt, has urgently 
solicited the marshal to favor the honest and 
industrious people of Montescourt with a visit. 
We understand that this desire is to be grati- 
fied, and that the marshal will be in this little 
city the day and night of ” 

Following were some lines suggesting the 
idea that the president would not have troubled 
himself, if the candidate had been less dear to 
him, and less useful to the nation. But as it 
was important to disseminate this truth among 
the people, the next day twenty thousand cir- 
culars were sent to the electors to spread abroad 
the good news. Loidreau, radiant, made the 
remark that “for the first time since the be- 
ginning of our history, the head of the state 
visits Montescourt.” 

He modestly insinuated that it was nobody’s 
fault, not even his, if he, Justin Loidreau, was 
the first person who had been able to procure 
for his native place such a distinction. 

As for Reygnac, he thought with terror of 


Henriette. 


1 70 

what his position might become in the next ten 
days. Without his mother, he would have 
killed himself with work, but as one has already 
seen and will yet more, this improvised direc- 
tress was made of the same stuff as Catherine 
de Medicis. 

At first it was necessary to call together the 
mayors of the different cities and to arrange 
with them upon the choice of delegations who 
should join in the procession. There, for the 
first time they came into collision in a serious 
way with Magalas’ influence. In his journal 
he attacked them outright, and in his inflam- 
matory proclamations adjured his adherents 
not to move. Some of them obeyed, and 
Gaston, like the prophets, was obliged to go 
into the country and mountains seeking those 
who would not come to him. 

Sometimes, if one can believe the legend, 
the “mountain came to Mahomet; ” while the 
stubborn mayors were not to be found when 
their chief presented himself to them. One 
could dispense with their co-operation, talk 
right and left, intrigue, negotiate, promise, put 
in motion all the energy of a refined diplomacy 
with these countrymen, who perhaps did not 


Henriette. 


171 

know how to read, but in matters of stratagem 
and defiance, would have checkmated Talley- 
rand himself. 

At the same time it was necessary to make 
out a list of the candidates, to help them with 
money, red ribbons, and academical palms. 
Colossal work, for everybody wanted some- 
thing. Peasants who had never owned a sheep, 
produced documents in due form establishing 
the loss of a flock 'by rot. Widows sent in their 
names for a license to sell tobacco, may be to 
bring up their numerous families when they 
had children, or perhaps, in case of complete 
solitude, because they had no one to support 
them. But what must be heard were the de- 
mands of the lovers of decorations. There were 
three hundred of them to five crosses for distri- 
bution. 

“We saved the party,” said one with noble 
pride. “It depends upon us to lose it,” in- 
sinuated others, with an air of menace. Dur- 
ing this time, Loidreau, the former justice of 
peace, and Magalas, the retired veterinary sur • 
geon, strained every nerve. Taken together, 
they were two formidable adversaries, but in 
the remote parts of the desolate villages, in the 


172 


Henrieite. 


midst of the plains, the prestige of the second 
in reality prevailed. For all, he was the phy- 
sician “for the beasts,” that is to say, he was 
something more than the healer of men ; for 
many, a very useful agent in the markets ; for 
others, when the cow died in spite of his care, 
a person with an evil eye, for Magalas was not 
a fool, and shrewdly managed so. as to get out 
of all difficulties. Although he had only prac- 
tised this since engaging in politics, he carried 
in the box of his cart his surgical case with its 
instruments, somewhat rusty, and between two 
electoral conversations, he had always an in- 
flammatory speech, or a tent for a seton, at 
the service of those who were his declared ad- 
herents. 

Meanwhile, there was not a moment’s rest 
for either ; Loidreau travelled over one side of 
the country while Magalas dashed through the 
other, like cavalry charges sweeping over the 
ground in every direction. By way of artillery, 
“ proclamations,” “ declarations,” “ appeals to 
our friends,” “ responses to our adversaries,” 
covered the walls with their multicolored pla- 
cards. The men who posted the bills had no 
rest night or day ; the paste flowed in streams. 


Henriette. 


173 


The city which went to sleep poppy colored, 
awoke bright yellow. Soon the public and 
private dwellings were not sufficient for their 
zeal, the paint brush attacked nature herself. 
From one side of the road to the other, the 
poplars became eloquent, they sent back and 
forth, from each other, violent reproaches for 
disloyal manoeuvring. On the hill side, the 
rocks seemed to grow larger, struggling to see 
which would carry highest toward the heavens 
the names of these two rival candidates, which 
the very air was absorbing. Sometimes the 
placards became facetious. One morning, one 
could see not far from Fresnau some cattle 
quietly browsing on the fresh grass, without 
suspecting that they carried pasted on their 
sides a full statement of treacherous slander 
against their foster father. 

Meanwhile, Reygnac, shut up in his office, 
felt his hair was turning gray, while he made 
out the list of invitations for the banquet in 
the evening and the reception which was to 
follow it. On this ground the difficulties threat- 
ened to become inextricable. One day, for 
example, three druggists presented themselves 
before him, respectful but firm. In ordinary 


i74 


Henriette. 


times these rivals would not salute each other 
on the street, but reunited in the face of a 
common danger, they came in a body to pro- 
test against the blow given to their professional 
dignity. It was noised abroad that they were 



prescribed the remedies figure among the 
chosen, and those who prepared them stay 
outside! Why this difference? Pharmacists 
have their diplomas as well as physicians. Do 
they not hold as much, even more, the life of 
the public in their hands, or at least in their 
bottles? And as they said in an associate 


Henriette . 


175 


letter to the Democrat, “ Did not Hisculapius 
himself bow down before the science of the 
Centaur Chiron? ” 

Hearing of the proceedings of the dispensers 
of quinine, the principal grocers organized in 
their turn a demonstration. “ We also,” stated 
they, “sell linseed, pills, and mineral waters; 
shall we be treated any worse than these gen- 
tlemen, because we sell cheaper than they, 
these soothing and purgative remedies? If it 
is necessary in order to be received into society 
to decorate our front windows with yellow and 
green bottles, we are ready to assume the ex- 
pense.” 

However, in the midst of these disagreeable 
fusses, the unhappy Gaston had at least one 
agreeable hour. It was when he saw the 
bailiffs from the different districts (there were 
a dozen of them) come to humble themselves 
before him. He had more than once in his 
life received some members of this corpora- 
tion, but on occasions when his role had not 
been so easy. This time, he could take his 
revenge, as he had nothing to fear and not 
without reason 

Picture to yourself a handful of Huns beg- 


176 


Henriette. 


ging the honor of being invited to the fetes at 
Rome the next day after the death of Attila! 
Poor bailiffs! Asking in vain, with a contrite 
air and flexible spine, the same treatment as 
the lawyers and solicitors, their natural allies 
in official war. They pleaded their cause 
before a judge too much prejudiced against 
them. 

. “ Gentlemen,” said Reygnac in a very grave 
tone of voice, “ c huissier ’ is a word derived 
from ‘huis.’ It is a word which also means 
door — draw your own conclusions.” 

They concluded by throwing themselves 
furiously into the Magalas party, who found 
in them powerful auxiliaries, and constantly 
darting off in the exercise of their duties to 
all parts of the country, while the druggists 
resolutely attended to their customers, distilling 
with an equally sure hand drops of laudanum 
and gratuitous spite, but no less dangerous 
than the most subversive doctrines. 

Gaston’s mother had charge of the material 
part of the organization, and certainly it was 
no little thing to do. She superintended a 
cleaning such as the house had never before 
seen; planted flowers in the garden, hung 


Henriette. 


177 


paper in the chambers, replaced broken dishes 
with new ones, and by her exertions the menu 
became more elaborate ; she engaged servants 
necessary for the household, selected the furni- 
ture to be repaired and hung up Venetian 
lanterns. Everybody recognized her to be a 
superior woman; the architect consulted her 
about the decorations for the mayor’s house, 
the leader of the brass band arranged with her 
upon the choice of selections. 

She corresponded by direct or indirect means 
with the prefecture, the minister, and also with 
the Elysee. She had grown twenty years 
younger, and in her imagination she saw her son 
engaged to an heiress, decorated, and prefet. 

To begin with, as a proof of her superior 
skill, she had the bright idea to attach to her- 
self Henriette Loidreau as lieutenant-general. 
Her uncle, dazzled by it, consented to the 
combination with joy. He offered also his 
movable furniture. If the marshal did not 
sleep under his roof, at least he should sleep 
in his sheets, and in some way it would be 
known to the electors. 

Every morning a carriage loaded with divers 

articles, carried Mile. Loidreau to the sous- 
12 


1 78 


Henriette. 


prefecture, were she passed a part of the day, 
and was already treated by the countess in a 
quasi maternal manner. When it was neces- 
sary to ask any question of Gaston, which hap- 
pened two or three times an hour, she always 
sent Henriette. But Gaston did not think of 
abusing the situation. He answered politely 
but without saying one word more than was 
necessary, often like a man slightly tired of 
being interrupted. He was tired it is true, 
not because he was interrupted, but because it 
was not another person who disturbed him. 
The more he saw of Henriette, the more he 
thought of Sabine. 

Loidreau’s niece noticed this coldness, which 
she attributed to a remnant of spite. At all 
events, not being in the secret, she had a little 
grudge against Reygnac for taking so slight an 
interest in the party. As it always happens in 
such cases, the more indifferent he was, the 
more she persisted. Often pretending to be 
tired, she would seat herself and enter into 
conversation with him, seeming to think that 
nobody could have anything better to do than 
to joke with her. 

One day when rummaging, like a spoiled 


Henriette. 


179 


child, among the papers which covered his 
desk, she placed her hand upon a little book 
without title, which resembled both a diction- 
ary and an arithmetic. The book had an air 
of mystery which puzzled her. She asked 
some questions; Reygnac was forced to tell 
her that this little book of cabalistic signs was 
the key to his telegrams in cipher. 

Of course she was not for stopping when on 
so good a trail, and Reygnac finally, to get rid 
of her, gave her a lesson upon the way to use 
this mysterious book, swearing to her that he 
committed a crime of high treason, and that 
he risked his head for her. Overjoyed, like all 
women who gather — or think they do — forbid- 
den fruit, and wishing to put it into practice, 
she took a sheet of paper and a pencil and 
without saying a word seated herself in a cor- 
ner, while Gaston continued his work. At the 
end of about five minutes, she handed him 
the sheet upon which she had written several 
characters. 

“ Let us see if you will be able to decipher 
my despatch,” said she. 

Gaston with a certain curiosity took the key 
and wrote the translation. 


i8o 


Henriette . 


“ The Count de Reygnac is a charming man, 
but he has some grudge.” 

“Not bad for a beginner,” said he, “now it 
is your turn to decipher.” 

Henriette took the scrawl that Gaston 
handed to her and with her pencil wrote down 
the following translation : 

“A man forewarned is forearmed.” 

Her face, bent over the table a few inches 
from Gaston, had a singular smile, but before 
either had time to speak, somebody knocked 
at the door. It was Perrin, her uncle’s secre- 
tary. The young girl made a slight but haughty 
bow, and went out with a majestic slowness. 

For several days, or to be more precise, 
since Mile. Loidreau had become the habitual 
guest at the sous-prefecture, this young advo- 
cate made frequent visits there. He presented 
himself, of course, as sent on business for his 
patron, sometimes having information to ask, 
and sometimes a recommendation to give. 
Often he brought, before sending to the printer, 
a manifesto or an article for the Journal. 

Reygnac could not excuse himself from see- 
ing him, but he submitted with an instinctive 
feeling of repulsion for this cold, correct man, 


Henriette. 


181 


always well dressed and whom it was impossi- 
ble to look straight in the face. As usual he 
extended his hand a little absent-mindedly, 
then, after inquiring the object of the inter- 
view, said he : 

“ Seat yourself at this table and write a note, 
while I go and make inquiries in the office.” 

Left alone, the secretary commenced to 
write, when suddenly his pen stopped. He 
saw a piece of paper covered with a corre- 
spondence in cipher and his practised eye 
recognized easily Gaston’s handwriting as well 
as Henriette’s. 

“Ah ! ” said he after reading it, “ we have 
gone as far as this already. Encouragement 
on one side, defiance on the other, and both 
in a charming spirit. Yes, certainly, my beau- 
tiful young lady, ‘a man forewarned is fore- 
armed; ’ you will find it so before long.” As 
he commenced to write again, he stopped 
once more with a deep frown. Decidedly this 
was a day of interesting discoveries! His pen 
between his teeth, his ears on the watch, he 
held in his hands a letter headed with these 
words — “Saint Pardoult Asylum.” At the top 
of the sheet, diagonally across one corner, was 


182 


Henriette. 


the word “confidential,” but Perrin was not 
frightened at so little a thing, “ for,” thought 
he, “ it is I who should have been sous-prefet 
at Montescourt; the missive is partly for me.” 

Doctor Doniol — for it was he who wrote — 
commenced by one or two obsequious phrases 
upon the honor of the visit paid him, after 
which he continued in these words: 

“ Pardon me for troubling you at this time, when 
you are absorbed with serious duties ; for myself, the 
world consists only of my patients. Since your short 
interview with Madame Loidreau, I have noticed a 
great change in this poor lady’s condition, and I wish 
very much to have you see her again. For the first 
time, since she was confided to my care, she asked to 
see me and questioned me about you, with a shade of 
good sense mixed with her ordinary hallucinations. Do 
you exert upon her a magnetic influence, such as I have 
observed in analogous cases ? Or have you suddenly, 
vaguely startled her benumbed intellect by pronouncing 
the name of her daughter, of whom we rarely speak ? 
One thing is certain ; that is, that she seems disposed 
to come out of her speechless condition, and I see in 
this symptom considerable hope.” 

The doctor ended by expressing with many 
apologies the hope of seeing the sous-prefet 
at Saint Pardoult as soon as he should be free 
from the excitement of the presidential tour. 


He7iriette. 


183 

“ If I am not very much mistaken we are 
both upon the same trail,” murmured Perrin, 
“ and I have taken this young aristocrat for a 
simpleton! Well! it will be necessary to play 
my trumps sooner than I expected.” 

Perrin discreetly placed the letter which he 
had just read under some other papers, and 
Gaston de Reygnac entering soon after, found 
him completely absorbed in his work. 

This day the dinner was served in the gar- 
den, the dining room being in possession of 
the decorators. The countess, Henriette, and 
her son silently ate their dinner upon the 
corner of a rustic table. \.t dessert Madame 
de Reygnac, who was sent for to give an order, 
left her seat. 

“ How long has Perrin been with your 
uncle? ” asked Gaston of Henriette when they 
were alone. 

“ My uncle has had him in his employ since 
he entered the Chamber of Deputies. Since 
you speak of him to me, I will take occasion 
to give you some useful advice. Mistrust him 
as you would fire, for he detests you with all 
his villainous heart.” 

“He! I would like to know why! the idea!” 


184 


Henrietta. 


The young lady’s face deepened with a 
scowl that one saw there sometimes and which 
gave her an almost hard look. She replied, 
as with a nervous gesture she crushed a wasp 
that had been attracted by the odor of the 
fruit, “ He ha'es you for two reasons; the first 
is, that he expected to have the place you now 
have.” 

“My faith ! I would have given it to him 
willingly; and the second reason of his ha- 
tred?” 

“ This can only be confided to a true friend 
and I hope that you are one. You remember 
a rather stormy conversation we had in the 
park at Fresnau a certain evening?” 

“As if it happened yesterday,” said Reygnac 
bowing without a smile. 

“You will understand the state of irritation 
that you found me in then ; I will tell you in 
the first place that this Perrin, who is the most 
contemptible of beings, has dared to have de- 
signs upon me and does not make any secret 
of it.” 

“ Why do you not have your uncle discharge 
him?” 

“Ah! ” said Henriette, “you do not know — - 


Henriette. 


185 

you do not understand what ambition will do 
to a man of my uncle’s temperament. Before 
he was my guardian, he was a candidate. He 
needed Perrin and Perrin lived with him. 
You can imagine my rage. Not only is this 
miserable creature not discharged, but he 
watches everybody who comes near me. Spare 
me these long details. To be brief, you have 
given him umbrage.” 

“ Mademoiselle,” said Reygnac, after a mo- 
ment’s silence, “ I understand many things 
now; one would believe that nobody could 
have rest here below, since you do not have 
it; you have everything that heart could wish. * 
But to return to monsieur, who concerns us 
now, and who is, I suspect, a cowardly scamp. 
The day that it becomes necessary to get rid 
of him, count upon me.” 

“Alas!” replied Henriette, “the thing is 
not so easy. Whatever happens, you are the 
first man who has said one comforting word to 
me. Thanks, Monsieur de Reygnac, I do not 
now feel so entirely alone. Will you give me 
your hand? ” 

“ Both ; now I must run away, work presses. 
Good-by, and don’t be sad.” 


i86 


Henriette. 


He went away without looking back, fol- 
lowed by her eyes, full of tears, the first that 
had soothed for many months the grief of a 
despairing and unhappy heart. 


Henriette. 


187 


CHAPTER XIV. 

The great day had arrived, and in the early 
hours of the morning Montescourt offered the 
odious spectacle of a frightful crowd of people. 
Seven or eight thousand country people of 
both sexes, with dusty feet and faces stream- 
ing with perspiration, wandered carelessly 
through the crowded streets. The air was 
muggy, a scorching sun heated to a white heat 
the sides of the houses, and sent out from the 
overcrowded shops a strong mixture of cook- 
ing and other foul odors. 

An hour after noon, one could only walk in 
the middle of the street, Indian file. The 
crowd was seated at tables everywhere; in 
the hotels, in private houses, opened to the 
public on this occasion, upon the sidewalks, 
even in the streams which were dried up. 
Alas ! The air was full of the odor of frying- 
fat. The pavements were covered with broken 
fragments and bones, mixed with papers bright- 


1 88 


Henriette. 


ened in spots by melted lard. Some drunken 
persons commenced to be noisy, but the ma- 
jority of the people gave way to the heavy 
torpor which came over the countryman as 





soon as he was seat- 
ed, when his glass 
was empty and he 
could eat no more. 

The firemen in 
helmets, with short 
white trousers exposing their brown ankles, 
touched glasses with the mayors, already gir- 
dled with their sashes, or with the game-keepers 
dressed with their caps and shoulder belts with 
large copper plaques. A wonderful thing! but 


Henriette . 


189 


among this mass of men, you could not find 
one in ten who was unprovided with a distinc- 
tive sign of some sort, as the French, inde- 
pendent above all, love to show by some es- 
pecial form of head gear that they belong to 
something or somebody. One could recognize 
by their head dress the orphans, gymnasts, 
collegians, signal men, post and telegraph 
boys, as well as military men. One must look 
a long time to find the immaculate straw hat 
of a simple citizen. As well look for a large 
stone without inscription on the plains of 
Piraeus. 

At two o’clock a movement was made; a 
platoon of mounted guardsmen who had ar- 
rived the day before from a neighboring garri- 
son, started for the station, and involuntarily 
everybody kept silence during the passage of 
these fine fellows, who had spent twelve hours 
sprucing up for the occasion. 

In their train the crowd followed, but were 
checked by the foot soldiers, who, moved at 
the thought that they were to see the marshal 
of France, were visibly disturbed to have to 
interfere with all these good people who had 
come from such a distance to see him. Then 


Henriette. 


190 

commenced the procession: musical societies, 
firemen, municipal and scholastic delegations, 
then at a lively pace came the carriages con- 
taining Reygnac and his prefet, the general 
and other officials of a high rank. Lastly 
came Loidreau’s sumptuous carriage, but 
empty, which was reserved for the honor of 
carrying the president of the republic. At 
last the train arrived. The drums beat a 
salute, the soldiers presented arms ; an impos- 
ing sight, which becomes ridiculous when done 
for a man dressed in a frock coat. This time, 
at least, the person who stepped from the car, 
called forth quite naturally these homages. 
He was in full uniform, and at a distance one 
could distinguish at once the broad red ribbon 
(Knight of St. Louis) and his face, red also, 
showing off the whiteness of his hair and his 
drooping moustache. Slightly blinking his 
eyes, overcome with the heat, he faced the 
sun with the same calm resignation that he 
would have endured the infernal fire of the 
enemy during the entire day at one of those 
battles called by the Germans, “le demon de la 
guerre .” Soon the speeches commenced. The 
prefet arose and was especially brief, as he 


Henriette. 


191 

would have preferred to say nothing had it 
been possible. The mayor threatened to be 
lengthy, but he became mixed up with his 
notes — which cut off at one blow the most in- 
teresting part of his speech. Some of the 
auditors not initiated into the mysteries of 
official eloquence, wondered, and with reason, 
to hear the marshal reply to things that had 
not been said. Usually, those in power offend 
oftener in omitting to reply to what is asked 
them. All at once when they supposed the 
oratorical part was ended, Magalas was seen 
coming from no one knows where, with a paper 
in his hand. Reygnac was on his guard. God 
only knows what words would have come out 
of the mouth of this hostile man, but, before 
he had time to open it, the orchestra, well dis- 
ciplined, burst with a crash into the march 
from Faust. Thus formerly, the rolling of a 
drum ordered by Santerre, drowned the last 
speech of an unfortunate king. 

It is true in politics that the same tricks 
always succeed. 

From this moment until midnight, or there- 
abouts, the unfortunate president could not 
count upon one minute alone. 


192 


Henrietle. 


At first they conducted him to the mayor’s, 
where seated in an arm chair in the largest 
room, he saw march before him several thou- 
sand electors, generally silent from prudence. 
Then came the exciting moment when the 
decorations were to be given. The new cheva- 
liers advanced as they were called by Reygnac, 
trembling, uneasy, some of them ready to cry. 
In a short speech Reygnac recapitulated the 
titles of honor that they were to receive and 
gave into the hands of the head of the state 
the Russia leather casket holding the glorious 
star. An aide-de-camp in shoulder knots pre- 
sented a pin, and the marshal fastened the 
decoration to the motionless coat before him, 
saying in a low, clear voice : 

“ V ery good ! V ery good ! ” 

The new Knight of the Legion of Honor, 
with head bent, tried in vain to thank him. 
They quietly pushed him along to make room 
for another, and he went away happy, squint- 
ing to see in the mirrors the effect of the glori- 
ous red spot upon his left breast. 

The last cross distributed, there remained 
now the tiresome duty of visiting the public 
institutions 5 fortunately they were rare at 


Henriette. 


J 9 3 


Montescourt. They went to the church, the 
hospital, and the one manufactory in the city. 
They finished with the college, where the 
mothers of the pupils were gathered in great 
force, less for the hero of Magenta, than to 
hear their sons’ speeches. All the pupils of 
the higher classes were to speak successively, 
that there need be no jealousy, but the inflexi- 
ble Reygnac with his watch in his hand, soon 
took away his illustrious guest from the family 
fete, which threatened to have a next day. 
They regained the sous-prefecture, where the 
guests invited to dinner awaited them. The 
escort was dismissed. Happy escort! As to 
the president, he had only time to offer his 
arm to Mme. de Reygnac and conduct her to 
the table; Gaston had Mme. du Villars at his 
right. 

“Well!” asked she, unfolding her napkin, 
“ what do you think of the day? ” 

“ I think that the workmen at Belleville 
would barricade themselves if they were obliged 
to work like this. And all this for Loid- 
reau! ” 

“ Ungrateful man! ” 

“ I repeat it ; all this for Loidreau ! ” 

J3 


194 


Henriette. 


“ The true candidate here is yourself, and 
your candidature is called Henriette.” 

“One can see that you have been talking 
with my mother.” 

“Ah! my friend, what an intelligent woman! 
She will succeed in all that it pleases her to 
undertake, but between you and me you are 
fortunate to have her.” 

“And what do you think of the election? ” 

“Of the election! We can count upon an 
imposing majority; I repeat it for the fiftieth 
time to-day.” 

“ On which side will this imposing majority 
be?” 

“Pooh! walls have ears. Let me tell you, 
monsieur, hurry to be on the safe side — I 
would like very well to be in your place. All 
the majorities in the world would not disturb 
me.” 

At dessert, there was only one toast, a happy 
improvisation of Perrin’s and given by Loi- 
dreau. Happy Loidreau! For six long hours 
he was the most important man in France. It 
was for him that the president had come to 
face all this display, and risked a stroke of 
apoplexy. At this very moment the telegraph 


He/t / k ite. 


*95 


was carrying his words. To-morrow, all the 
journals would reproduce them. Ah! the 
glorious day! 

As it always should be — so they say — wits 
jump together, at the very moment that Loi- 
dreau was assuming an air of importance in 
the sunlight of his own glory, Magalas, who 
was not at the banquet, finished a masterly 
article with these words: 

“The glorious day! In a few hours, a 
former justice of peace will have cost France 
one hundred thousand francs. The most ex- 
pensive of the favorites in the old regime 
could not have done better. Let it be said 
without offence to anybody, that at the same 
price, vve would have preferred in place of the 
triumph of this puppet, that of a Pompadour 
or Montespan. The feast of the mind could 
not have been less; that of the eyes would 
have been greater.” 

At nine o’clock, after drinking their coffee 
in as hurried a manner as if in a railroad sta- 
tion, the guests left the table for the drawing 
rooms, already filled. Of all the projects on the 
programme, the party was the one which gave 
Reygnac the most uneasiness. The result 


196 


Henriette. 


justified his fears. The reception was only 
one uninterrupted succession of lamentable 
and comical incidents. 

Some of the guests drank too freely of 
champagne and became rude to the ladies, 
obliging the master of the house to interfere 
all the more severely, as generally the offend- 
ing parties had not the excuse of an enticing 
temptation. 

Others, mistaking the meaning of the num- 
bers for the cloak room, took Gaston aside for 
a serious talk and to inquire as to the hour 
when they drew for the lottery. Toward the 
close of the evening, a lady who had borrowed 
a friend’s dress for the occasion, and who was 
more corpulent, made a frightful .scandal. 
Without her suspecting it, some pins that were 
badly put in, failed her; a little more and she 
would have been out of her dress. Fortunately 
Reygnac had an eye for everything. He looked 
for her husband and found him seated at play, 
and prevailed upon him, not without trouble 
— the poor man was just gaining twenty-five 
francs — to take his wife away before she be- 
came entirely naked. 

One will never know by strength of what 


Henriette. 


197 


transactions Gaston and his mother had ob- 
tained the promise that the noblesse of the 
city and its surroundings would be present at 
this party. Perhaps it would have been as well 
not to have taken so much trouble to bring 
about so small a result. These aristocrats 
really came, but “if their bodies were there, 
one felt that their souls were elsewhere.” The 
men came in upon tiptoe and the ladies gath- 
ered up their dresses, then all established 
themselves in a little parlor, which was soon 
deserted by c the others ’ and they never 
stirred from their chairs. 

About ten o’clock Madame Justin Loidreau 
and her niece came in, creating quite a sensa- 
tion. The prefet offered his arm to the 
deputy’s wife, and Reygnac to Henriette, 
whose beauty and irreproachable elegance 
would have been remarked in any of Paris’ 
most brilliant balls. 

“Mon Dieu!” said Reygnac gayly, “what 
time lost ! What a pity to waste such splendor 
on this mob of ugly creatures.” 

“ I am enchanted, monsieur, if my dress 
pleases you.” 

“ Bah ! you know very well that I am not 


198 


Henriette. 


speaking of your dress. Does one see that 
only ? If you wish anybody to look at that, 
close your eyes.” 

“Thanks for the compliment; I hope you 
had less trouble to compose and learn it than 
my poor uncle did with his. Did he recite it 
well?” 

“ Not badly ; I see him looking for you now.” 

Loidreau, red and hurried, came up to her. 
“ Come, my niece, I wish to introduce you to 
our dear marshal.” 

Almost at the same instant the Marquis de 
Barjols appeared with his sister. 

“Are you happy,” said Raoul, as he seized 
his friend’s hand, “here I am! I abdicate, I 
submit, I sacrifice myself to Loidreau, the 
sole and only one. What must I do? Kiss 
the hem of his coat, or crawl at his enormous 
feet? Enjoy your triumph. What will you 
give me the day of his coronation?” 

“ I shall not see that day,” said Reygnac, 
offering his arm to Mile, de Barjols; “I shall 
be dead with fatigue before then.” 

“Ah! mademoiselle, what a day! ” 

“At least,” asked she in her musical voice, 
“you are nominated prefet?” 


Henriette. 


i 99 


In aiding her through the crowd, he looked 
at her with great admiration. He waited until 
she raised her eyes before replying, but in a 
tone far from joking. “You would not care 
then if I was far away from Montescourt? ” 

“ Probably,” said she bowing her head, “ I 
am less anxious for it than you are.” 

As he opened his mouth to reply, she con- 
tinued a little hurriedly, 

“ I see your mother making signs to me, let 
us go to her.” 

Loidreau’s niece was seated beside the 
countess. 

“Good evening, Henriette,” said Sabine, 
with her frank cheerful smile; “how beautiful 
you are ! ” 

“ Good evening, Sabine,” said the other. 
“You are lovely!” 

By a single word the two girls had painted 
themselves vice versa. In spite of her twenty- 
three years, Raoul’s sister appeared the younger 
of the two. Her fresh white muslin dress, her 
large, deep, calm, blue eyes gave her a youthful 
air, happy, confident, quietly awaiting her des- 
tiny. 

Henriette, much handsomer, but of that 


200 


Henriette. 


restless, proud beauty of a true brunette, was 
the living antithesis of her schoolmate. Her 
red dress, too elegant for a young girl, her 
shoulders and magnificent arms were boldly 
exposed, and while she talked to Sabine, her 
large black eyes glittered proudly with a fever- 
ish excitement, where the next moment one 
could see a misty cloud of sadness. 

Gaston, after leaving Mile, de Barjols, went 
away, recalled by other duties, but not without 
throwing behind him one last expressive look. 
As he passed through the crowd, drawing near 
the august circle, where the great personages 
were holding forth, he found himself before 
Madame du Villars, who had been watching 
him for five minutes 

“ So then,” said she to him in a low tone, 
stopping his passage, “ this is the way you steer 
your barque! ” 

He knew her thoughts, for she had her eyes 
fixed upon Sabine. He replied, very seri- 
ously: 

“You are right; that is the barque which 
leads me. What would you have! one cannot 
be made over.” 

“You are a. fool; I judged you the first 


Henriette. 


201 


timelsawyou; but who knows? You are not 
alone in the barque and your mother is a good 
pilot. The difficulty is, Mademoiselle de 
Barjols is very pretty.” 

Suddenly the first rockets were sent off on 
, the terrace, causing everybody to go into the 
garden. A clever strategist, the marshal prof- 
ited by this diversion to beat a retreat and 
went to bed. He had only a short time to 
sleep. Early in the morning he continued his 
journey, to recommence a little farther on, the 
same festivities as at Montescourt. 

After the last rocket, the crowd pushed 
about the dressing room. The train had al- 
ready borne away the distinguished visitors 
from the county towns. In the yard, the car- 
riages of the neighboring families were passing 
out ; the last one was the one belonging to the 
Marquis de Barjols. As they went to close 
the gate, the horses, frightened by the noise, 
shied and broke the pole. While Raoul 
busied himself trying to temporarily repair the 
damage, Gaston made Sabine leave the car- 
riage and go into the parlor, now completely 
empty. 

“ I pity you,” said the young girl, “ we shall 


202 


Henriette. 


prevent you from going to bed after this horri- 
ble day.” 

“A day finished thus is a beautiful one,” 
said Reygnac, giving her a seat in an arm chair, 
while he stood a few paces from her. 

A little disturbed at this beginning, she 
looked around the empty room and said: 
“ Has your mother already retired? ” 

“ Here, alone with me, you are as well 
watched over as by my mother herself. Ah ! 
I have well earned these few moments. Yes, 
you are right, it was a horrible day; a day of 
falsehoods and comedies. How many times 
this evening I have looked at you, to see at 
least a face that reflected the truth, which did 
not play a role.” 

“ I too,” replied she, reassured, “ I have 
looked at you, in the midst of all these restless 
busy men ; you had the air of a man out of his 
sphere, and I said to myself, c What is he here 
among this crowd for? ’ ” 

“ What one does in such a place is to work 
hard and expiate the past. You have read 
stories of bad subjects that are sent off as 
cabin boys.” 

Sabine could hardly keep from smiling. 


Henriette. 


203 


Understanding her thoughts, Gaston said to 
her: “You find me a little too old for that 
employment? Alas! I do too. Twenty times 
a day I say to myself, that I have made a 
failure of my life.” 

“You look at things on the dark side; you 
are, on the contrary, upon the road to success.” 

“Am I on the road to happiness? ” 

“ There are so many ways of understanding 
happiness ! ” 

“No, no more than there are different ways 
of understanding health. One can readily see 
that you have never been ill or unhappy. You 
spread about you health, hope, and happiness ; 
you are so good, so gracious, and so sweet! ” 

“I wish that my brother could hear you! 
He says, sometimes, I am enough to make a 
saint swear.” 

“You would make a devil love virtue. At 
this moment, because you are near me, it 
seems to me that I am worth something, and 
I am happy to live ; but when you are gone, I 
shall be worse than before. Beggars feel hun- 
grier than ever, the day after they have had a 
good dinner.” 

“ It is not what mine say,” said Sabine 


204 


Henriette. 


smiling, “fortunately they do not resemble 
you.” 

“ I can well believe it : they see you every 
day! They know that you often think of 
them. How I envy them! ” 

“Do not envy them,” said she blushing 
slightly ; “ I cannot think of my poor people 
without thinking of you. The first time that 
we met, you were very kind to them.” 

“I wish,” said he, with impetuosity, “that 
you would put me to the test, by asking 
something very difficult! If you could know 

with what pleasure ” She interrupted 

him, a little disturbed and fearing that this 
poor beggar would end by asking too great a 
favor : 

“ I take you at your word,” said she. “ Will 
you look and see if my brother is nearly ready? 
I am sure my mother will be uneasy. She 
never will go to sleep without kissing me.” 

At that instant Raoul’s voice was heard 
calling through the open windows. He was 
already in the seat, the reins in his hands; 
Gaston conducted the young lady to the car- 
riage, seated her upon the cushions, covering 
her with shawls and cloak. 


Henriette . 


205 


“Thanks,” said she; “you have wrapped 
me up so well that I cannot give you my 
hand.” 

She was marvellously pretty, with an ex- 
quisite charm, her head covered with a white 
fluffy hood. Reygnac bent over and seizing, 
in place of Sabine’s hand, a ribbon which 
floated from her garments, pressed it to his 
lips, and the restless horses dashed away. ^ 


This was the last episode connected with ^ 
the presidential tour to Montescourt. King- 
doms and republics die out, but love will 



206 


Henriette . 


CHAPTER XV. 

The president had not succeeded in satisfy- 
ing either party. One side considered him as 
an enemy; the other as an insufficient or dan- 
gerous ally ; others as a stubborn servant. 
Nevertheless, with a common accord, they 
suspended hostilities in his presence, not from 
any patriotic sentiment or respect, but to allow 
the tavern keepers to collect more money than 
Montescourt had ever seen before. It was a 
truce of twenty-four hours. 

The marshal had hardly seated himself in 
the car, before the battle commenced anew, 
with so much more ardor that one must almost 
admit that he had assisted that day in a simple 
skirmish. Magalas and his friends opened the 
attack by violent articles, by resignations given 
with noise, by speeches the report of which 
made the brows of the peaceable farmers break 
out in cold perspiration^ On the opposite 
side, they replied by a full release of all revo- 
cations. 


Henriette . 


207 


The electoral tours of the candidates took 
the fierce aspect of an American duel, with 
this difference, that they manoeuvred upon 
the battle-field in such a way that they never 
met, because they were afraid, said the scep- 
tics, that they could not look at each other 
without laughing. 

Already it had come to the point of their 
passing the nights in their carriages — executing, 
in imitation of great leaders, forced marches 
in the middle of the night, combining artifice 
and deceit, dropping down at six o’clock in 
the morning in the midst of a defenceless 
population before the laborers had left for 
their fields. 

Then they made profound discourses, often 
incomprehensible but always interminable, for 
in the village the one who speaks the longest 
is the one who speaks the best. Nevertheless, 
in spite of the urgency of their work, they lis- 
tened religiously with open mouths for entire 
hours. In our lovely France those villagers 
who would leave the death bed of a father to 
save a load of hay from the rain, would lose a 
whole day to listen to political gabble. 

All at once Loidreau’s position seemed to 


208 


Henriette . 


be impregnable. He had many advantages 
over Magalas. He was rich, or at least knew 
where to get money. He had at his command 
one of the Paris journals which sustained him 
with many a well-written article. He was not, 
like the ex-veterinary, obliged to attend to 
everything himself, to making visits, to writing 
or printing, and he had the best horses. 

If one adds to all this that he proudly 
proclaimed himself the marshal’s candidate, 
and that the aristocrats of the place, few in 
number, it is true, rallied about him — at 
least, if we are to believe appearances — one 
can see that his success was looked upon as 
certain. 

As to Reygnac, he drew aloof from the con- 
test, considering that they could do without 
him. It was not that he dreaded the work or 
the noise, but his thoroughbred instinct dis- 
liked the mob and the humbug. He had been 
obliged to drive ten leagues in a car and to 
pass an entire night in his office to straighten 
out some matter, or to reconcile the Municipal 
Council, but he disliked these political contests 
where it was necessary to wet his lips with a 
$lozen glasses and shake fifty hands “ wet with 


Henriette. 


209 


perspiration ” as Shakespeare says, through the 
mouth of one of his boldest translators. 

A short time after the marshal’s visit, Gaston 
went to Saint Pardoult, there, at least, he was 
sure that they would not talk of the elections. 

“ Well,” said he to the doctor, “you sent for 
me and here I am. How is your patient? ” 

“ Better physically, monsieur ; but as to the 
rest, she is more confused than ever. She has 
always the fixed idea of a criminal process to 
endure; but no v she believes that she is in 
prison and on the eve of going before the as- 
sizes. The poor lady thinks that you are her 
lawyer, and is in despair because your visits 
are so rare.” 

“ Poor creature ! I will try to calm her. 
Let us go to her.” 

A moment later Reygnac found himself face 
to face with Madame Loidreau. 

“At last! the secret is at an end!” ex- 
claimed she, “ they permit me to communicate 
with my counsel.” Then when they were 
alone this poor creature said: 

“My friend, you will never get me out of 
this. The guilty one hung himself in prison. 

My best means of defence has escaped me,” 

H 


210 


Henriette. 


“We will find another; rest easy. Every 
day juries acquit mothers who have killed their 
children. Meanwhile, are you sure that your 
son is not living? The other day I was shown 
a beautiful child three years old, who was per- 
fectly well, I assure you, and resembled you 
in every feature. Would it not give you plea- 
sure to see your son? ” 

“My son! but, monsieur, I have no son. 
I never had a son. The accursed man hung 
himself ; that is what is serious ; I, too, wished 
to hang myself, but I am always prevented, and 
then, too, God forbids us to take our own lives.” 

“Who was he, this bad man?” asked Rey- 
gnac, struck with this persistent idea of the 
crazy woman’s. 

She heard the question, but already her 
mind wandered elsewhere, and her dry lips 
murmured absent-mindedly : 

“ Monsieur, have you noticed my daughter’s 
teeth? Never tell her they are beautiful, you 
will make her cry. Ah! horrible! horrible! 
horrible! ” 

Reygnac arose discouraged. Decidedly, he 
must renounce the idea of drawing one spark 
of intelligence from her poor brain. Now, 


Heiiriette. 


21 1 


with head bent upon her knees, Mme. Loi- 
dreau made a movement as if rocking a baby, 
while two large tears coursed down her cheeks. 
And they wished him to marry this crazy crea- 
ture’s daughter! He went out after calling 
an attendant, without the sick woman’s notic- 
ing anything. 

“ It is complete confusion,” said he to the 
doctor, “ she could not follow two minutes at 
a time the same idea, and I admit to you, the 
sight makes me ill.” 

As he opened the door he said, “ What an 
inheritance she leaves for ner poor children!” 

“ Oh ! ” said the doctor, “ one must make a 
distinction. The young girl is as healthy in 
intelligence as you or I, for her mother’s in- 
sanity is without doubt accidental.” 

“ Doctor,” asked Gaston, “if you had a son 
would you allow him to marry Mademoiselle 
Loidreau? ” 

“Yes, certainly, sooner twice than once as 
the saying goes; but,” added the doctor, with 
a hearty laugh, “ I have only daughters, and 
when the little boy is old enough to take a 
wife, the question will not interest these young 
ladies.” 


212 


Henriette. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

Intimate relations had been established 
between the countess and Henriette since the 
famous trip. The natural instincts of Henri- 
ette were developed by the contact of life in 
an aristocratic boarding school, and prompted 
her toward all which was noble, distinguished, 
and delicate, and these instincts continually 
clashing by the contact of every-day life at 
Fresnau, were carefully humored by Madame 
Reygnac, as a precious and sure ally. 

Henriette had kept up the habit of coming 
frequently to pass the afternoon at the sous- 
prefecture with Gaston’s mother. During these 
interviews the door was closed and the con- 
versation drifted easily toward one invariable 
end. She did not come from a serene sphere, 
elegant, brought up above the common place 
ideas of the country, the miseries of politics 
and the troubles of household cares. Nobody 
hearing them talk would have suspected that 


Henriette. 


213 


there was any difference between them except 
in their ages, they appeared of the same soci- 
ety. No clue would indicate to the clearest 
sighted that one was the daughter of a mason, 
the other a real countess whose silver plate 
might be in the pawnbroker’s, but whose coat 
of aftns was at Versailles. 

Under the pretext that her sight was weak, 
Madame Reygnac had made Henriette her 
secretary. One might often hear her say to 
the young girl, with her drawling voice like 
the old aristocrats: 

“ My dear, you who are only twenty and 
have your young eyes, write to the duchess 
that I cannot come to pay her a visit this 
autumn as she wishes.” 

Or again — 

“ Darling, if it will not tire you too much 
will you read this letter for me ; the handwrit- 
ing of this poor marquis is almost illegible. 

At the end of fifteen days Henriette knew 
the dowager’s acquaintances almost as well as 
her own ; I speak of her friends in the fash- 
ionable world, for certain less aristocratic let- 
ters, by the signature and the contents, did 
not meet (for a good reason) the eyes of the 


214 


Henriette. 


young heiress — Henriette did not need to ask 
for the addresses; she remembered wonder- 
fully well in the confusion of alliances, the 
names of the estates of the eldest sons. She 
knew to her fingers’ ends the tastes and follies 
of all these society people. She had not been 
brought up in the Seraglio, but she knew all its 
ways and felt herself ready to enter it, so much 
so, that had she married a bourgeois, she 
would have believed with perfect faith she had 
made a misalliance. 

One day, in the first lines of a letter, written 
in a coarse hand which savored of the eigh- 
teenth century, Madame de Reygnac stopped 
the young reader. 

“ My child, you fall into the midst of a con- 
spiracy, and if the person who wrote me knew 

but you are one of us, and I trust you. 

Read then, my dear, buf afterward perfect 
silence, is it not? Meanwhile, be warned, if 
I go to prison, you will go with me! ” 

To prison! I believe that Henriette would 
willingly have gone there in such good com- 
pany! 

Madame de Reygnac did not deceive when 
she said that she conspired, but she took good 


Henriette. 


215 


care not to say for whose benefit. One could 
almost believe that her correspondent wrote 
under her dictation. The letter arrived just 
in time to advance the affairs of this suitor in 
partibus, who, like certain others, would have 
the deed done even if compelled by force. 

In spite of the preliminary advice of the 
countess, Henriette found more gossip than 
conspiracy in the four pages that were betrayed 
to her so freely. The last paragraph interested 
her the most; it was like this: 

“ One is half pleased at F ” 

“ F means Frohsdorf,” exclaimed Gas- 

ton’s mother. 

“ I know it, dear madame,” said Henriette 
coldly. 

“ One is half pleased at F to see a Rey- 

gnac run after a sous prefecture. It is certain 
it is not his place, but please God he will not 
remain there long. For the time being, dear 
friend, busy yourself in finding for this charm- 
ingly bad subject, converted they say, a wife 
who is suitable for him. In ten years you 
would not be disappointed to be the mother 
of an ambassador. That is what is possible 
for your son, and one could ask for nothing 


21 6 


Henriette. 


better than to put him in the saddle. I shall 
be in Paris toward the end of the autumn, 
and you can imagine with what pleasure I shall 
take it upon myself to present your daughter- 
in-law. Try only that she may be intelligent 
and handsome enough to grace the salon of a 
diplomat.” 

“Yes,” sighed the countess; “marry your 
son is very easy to say! but Gaston is like an 
untamed colt, the moment that he is shown a 
saddle and bridle, he gallops away.” 

The truth was, that Gaston for some time 
had ridden a great deal under the pretext of 
elections. “ All roads lead to Rome,” says the 
proverb, but with him, it was the contrary, and 
Rome, that is to say, the Chateau de Barjols, 
was on the road to the four principal parts of 
the country. 

One saw him constantly passing there, by 
accident, to go in a very different direction. 
On the other hand, it was seldom that Hen- 
rietta Loidreau had an opportunity of seeing 
him during her long visits at Montescourt. 
Once or twice he had happened to come in, 
in the midst of a tete-a tete between the young 
lady and his mother. He greeted her then 


Henriette. 


217 

coldly, seated himself for five minutes, making 
a few common-place remarks without looking 
at the pretty visitor. 

Gaston’s attitude was something strange and 
inexplicable, but one could count upon 
Madame de Reygnac’s explaining all for the 
best. One thing was certain, that was, that 
her son was far from treating Henriette with 
that courteous friendship that he did five or 
six weeks before. Positively he seemed to fly 
from her with a strange persistency, and the 
astonishing thing was, that the countess did 
nothing to bring about mo v e frequent inter- 
views between them. It was because she knew 
a woman’s heart well, and the old proverb, 
“Follow love and it will flee, flee love and it 
will follow thee.” 

One day Mile. Loidreau could not help say- 
ing: 

“ Is Monsieur de Reygnac always sous-pre- 
fet de Montescourt ? ” 

“Always,” replied the countess smiling. 
“ The fact is, neither you nor I can expect but 
little. The poor boy has no time to loiter. 
He takes his work seriously and works as if his 
life depended upon it.” 


2l8 


Henriette . 


“ But,” said Henriette, selecting with much 
care a bit of wool from a basket, “ I thought 
that he ought to be diplomatic.” 

“ Diplomatic,” said the countess shaking her 
head; “he does not show much disposition for 
diplomacy. Admit that you think the same.” 

Mile. Loidreau did not reply. During her 
next visit she returned to the same subject. 

“ He seems to me preoccupied and sad,” 
said Madame de Reygnac sighing ; “ he pre- 
tends the elections absorb his time. He 
spends the mornings in his office and the 
afternoons going about the parishes.” 

“About the parish of Barjols,” said Henri- 
ette, who knew through her uncle all the news 
in the district. 

The countess became interested. Her son 
never spoke to her of Sabine or her family. 
Meanwhile if he went to Barjols it was not to 
inspect the primary school. She replied with- 
out seeming in the least surprised, “ The 
marquis is his most intimiate friend.” 

“And what a charming person Sabine is,” 
said Henriette with an indifferent art. 

“ Charming,” said the countess; “and her 
mother is the best of women. At Barjols poor 


Henriette. 


219 


Gaston can forget politics — become a society 
man and speak without turn- 
ing every word over in his 
mind a dozen times.” 

Henriette 


had a piqued 
air, looked 



boots which 
gave some signs 
o f impatience 
and said, “You 
are hard upon Fres- 
nau, madame. I assure 
,,j, ){ you that my uncle and my 
aunt ” 

Oh ! my dearest, they are perfec- 
tion. But with your uncle one can talk of lit- 
tle but politics, and your aunt — come now, my 


220 


Henriette. 


child, you know she is very little a woman of 
the world, and horribly countrified.” 

Henriette knew it only too well, but if she 
had spoken all her thoughts she would have 
said: 

“ Yes; but I have understood that she has a 
niece who, in spite of her name, is not coun- 
trified.” 

Madame de Reygnac had a keen perception 
and knew very well people’s thoughts. She 
continued, “ It is a terrible position in the 
country, for a young man without a fortune to 
marry. People look for a reason in every 
thing he does. Mile, de Barjols is not rich 
enough for people to marry her to Gaston at 
the second visit.” 

His second visit! It was a long time ago 
that the third was made, and the fourth too ! 
The very next day after the party Reygnac 
went to make inquiries. Not to have done so 
would have been impolite. Thank God! the 
mended pole had held good and the return 
home was accomplished without accident, 
although they had almost run over a dozen 
drunken men reeling from one side of the 
gtreet to the other shouting “ La Marsellaise ” 


Henriette. 


22 r 


to the moonlight for want of a better audience. 
However, politeness did not go quite so far as 
to speak of a certain red ribbon kissed the 
night before, and Sabine, on her side, appeared 
at first a little reserved, but Gaston made the 
marquise laugh until the tears rolled down her 
cheeks, when telling her of the exploits of the 
guests of Montescourt, and by the end of five 
minutes Sabine was laughing with her mother. 

Two days after, the prefecture had replied 
on the subject of the fire engine. They sent 
a set of questions, twenty-seven in number, 
not one less. It required two hours to do the 
work, and Gaston had time to count the dim- 
ples and pretty blue veins on the hand that was 
writing. It was the hand that he looked at ; 
it was the cheeks that became red. What 
could he do ? There is nothing which pre- 
vents the eyes following a pen which travels 
across paper. So much the worse for the 
fingers which hold the pen ! 

Before the week had passed there was an- 
other administrative question which required 
the presence of the sous-prefet at Barjols. 
What an engrossing parish ! Happily the others, 
did not resemble it, 


222 


Henriette. 


Finally, Gaston went without pretext, sim- 
ply for exercise, to take the air. He took the 
cars at Montescourt, leaving the train at the 
first station and walked the distance between 
the station and chateau. There in the large 
drawing-room, always full of delicious fresh- 
ness or under a large tree a little way from the 
chateau, he would find the mother and daugh- 
ter busy at their everlasting work of knitting 
for the poor, and linen for the church. 

At first the marquise was not able to shake 
off in Gaston’s presence that distrust which 
1830 inspired in a certain society regarding all 
that was official. But this young man still be- 
longed to her set. He was so independent! 
In politics he would offend sooner by not hav- 
ing opinions than to have bad ones. In relig- 
ion he had principles, a little broad it is true, 
but at best he knew how to defend them — as 
a gentleman would defend a woman who is not 
his friend, for the reason that she was attacked. 
Still, he had the same frankness, and a person 
like the marquise could not maintain her re- 
serve long toward a man, loyal, generous, and 
well educated. Soon they became the best 
friends in the world. 


Henriette. 


223 


As to Sabine, if you had asked her what she 
thought of Reygnac, she would have been a 
little embarrassed. Meanwhile the less acute 
would have said that she did not feel any an- 
tipathy for him, otherwise she would have found 
a hundred good reasons for not being riveted to 
her chair, as she was, during the visits that 
Gaston made to the marquise. On these oc- 
casions, if any affair called Mile, de Barjols 
out of the drawing-room, it was to be noticed 
that the business was promptly attended to and 
that her chair did not remain empty long. By 
the end of the month, Sabine, without realizing 
it, spent some time longer dressing her hair on 
the days when she might expect a visit from 
Reygnac. Soon she found that the days when 
he did not come, went less quickly than the 
others. 

As for Gaston, he was contented as usual to 
turn the pages of his life, without looking to 
see the title of the next chapter. He was one 
of those who emptied the bottle when the wine 
was good, taking care not to count the glasses ; 
and who did not waken himself in the night 
expressly to ask, “ Have I slept ? ” 

He knew very well that one came quickly 


224 


Henriette . 


enough to the bottom of the bottle, and to the 
end of his dreams. Poor wine does not seem 
better the next day, because one has abstained 
from drinking good wine the night before. 
Soon enough, the time will come when it will 
be necessary to bid adieu to the sweet strong 
wine that he prefers. Meanwhile, a few hours 
of intoxication enjoyed from time to time does 
no harm to anybody. 

The marquise commenced to sing the praises 
of Reygnac loudly, but when he had gone, she 
sung them in this fashion : 

“ He is a charming man, remarkably well- 
bred and thoughtful. What a pity that his 
thoughtfulness should come so slowly and his 
money go so fast. People say that he will 
marry this little Loidreau, and truly, he will 
not do such a very bad thing.” 

“Take that, Sabine ! ” thought Raoul smil- 
ing under his moustache. “ This is to caution 
you against any romantic ideas. Our mother 
is a woman of precaution. She does not close 
the door on passers by, but she searches them 
before they enter, to see what they have in 
their pockets.” 

Sabine understood very well, although she 


Henriette. 


225 


looked perfectly innocent ; one day she blushed 
a little because her brother, after a new insin- 
uation of the marquise, replied: 

“Upon my honor, mother, if our friend 
Reygnac wishes to marry the Loidreau, he 
takes a queer way of paying her attention.” 

Mile. Barjols thought th^t her brother was 
not wanting in logic on this occasion, and that 
evening when the family separated, she gave 
her brother what he called a “ Sunday kiss.” 


15 


226 


Henriette. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

\ 

At last, autumn came; the time for the 
legislative elections. That famous date Octo- 
ber 14th was not far away. While in the 
cities certain political events, more or less 
pronounced, showed themselves in the breast 
of the people, the rural element became the 
prey of complete bewilderment, which was daily 
increasing and likely to reach that of profound 
terror. 

There was occasion for it! Every morning 
the postman, transformed into a street porter v 
flooded the country with a multitude of various 
journals, but equally full of terrible predic- 
tions. 

Here they announced the return of the tithes, 
forced confessions, war, and Prussian invasion. 
There — scourges from heaven, and those of 
the revolution, frost, hail, fire, and the guillo- 
tine. The countryman between two fires truth- 
fully could say when he had read this mourn- 


Menriette. 


227 


ful prose, “ All this is only a question of my 
death ! ” 

Still, if it was only a question of dying ! but 
the house! the poor house whose walls yet 
showed in places the dark traces of the winter 
of 1870. The incendiary lies in wait for the 
tiles of the roofs still new, and the bundles of 
wheat but just carried to the granary. For if 
there is one thing the farmers fear in this world, 
it is fire. The last war has demonstrated this. 
In many instances he will excuse an assassin ; 
but try to ask his pity for an incendiary! 

Therefore every morning faces became 
more solemn. From day to day the dismayed 
voter fell back more and more toward the last 
resource of the farmer, concealment, deceit 
and caution. He was reserved with his wife, 
deceived his neighbor and above all his candi- 
date, promising his vote to everybody, drink- 
ing with the same placid smile Magalas’ beer, 
and Loidreau’s poor wine, filling his pockets 
with circulars that were given him by the 
handful, and destroying them behind some 
thicket in a deserted place, where nobody 
could see him. 

Now and then in coming out of a reunion, 


228 


Henriette. 


he carried to his home a wan smile, a vague 
hope opened under the abundant shower of 
pompous promises. Alas! the next day would 
prove to him that the promises were impossi- 
ble to keep, and that he, the poor voter, was 
only a fool, in short, this was the only truth 
upon which he had no doubt. 

Reygnac rarely saw “ his candidate,” who 
spent his days at reunions and the greater part 
of his nights in his carriage. The old justice 
of peace, formerly very corpulent, became 
thin like a greyhound. The most astonishing 
thing was that he had become an orator. 
Sometimes it was necessary that he should 
speak for three hours, in order to occupy the 
time until dinner, without which, a lawyer be- 
longing to the adverse party would be able to 
have the platform. At other times he had to 
despatch in ten minutes an entire political 
programme. Above all, it was necessary to 
be ready to reply without evasion to the most 
difficult questions asked suddenly by one of 
Magalas’ friends. But with practice we attain 
success. If they questioned him upon the 
constitution, the army, upon alliances, protec- 
tion or free trade, he had for each a system 


Henrietie. 


229 


unassailable, but equally incomprehensible to 
his auditors. He replied; that was the essen- 
tial thing. 

One day while exhausted horses were being 
changed, they being simply the candidates’ 
horses, and not the candidates themselves — 
Loidreau came to rest for ten minutes in an 
arm chair in Reygnac’s office. 

“Oh!” said he, making the springs creak. 
“What a business! if ever I am caught 
again! ” 

“ How do your affairs progress ? ” 

“ How does the devil progress ? Can you 
know what is going on with him ? Oh ! these 
electors! they turn into pickpockets. Yester- 
day I lent twenty francs to one of them who 
came to cry poverty at my office. This morn- 
ing I found my twenty francs upon the sub- 
scription list of the Magalas Club under the 
name of my borrower.” 

“ A transfer, that is all ! When they re- 
member that in one of your last speeches you 
called these good farmers, ‘ Soldiers of honor, 
all ready to defend the fortress of duty! ’ ” 

“ One would think that the man with the 
twenty francs served in the cavalry. What 


230 


Henriette. 


would you ? The metaphor is not mine. It 
is Perrin’s. That fellow is very clever.” 

“ He forced his imagination a little too far.” 

“ Yes, but what a valuable man! He works 
day and night. If you could see what he calls 
his electoral nest of drawers. As many 
drawers as parishes and in them a collection 
of autographs that makes one tremble. For 
Perrin pretends that he has in this little piece 
of furniture what will break Magalas’ election, 
or mine, as he chooses.” 

“ The devil ! if I were in your place, the 
key of this £ little piece of furniture ’ would 
never leave my pocket.” 

“ Oh ! my dear fellow, you are hard on this 
poor Perrin. What could he do without me?” 

The time has come to tell what Perrin would 
do without his patron, but first a short bio- 
graphy of this fellow is necessary. 


Henriette. 


231 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

At the death of the deputy Loidreau, first 
of the name, who died suddenly as we know, 
his brother Justin, the dismissed justice of 
peace, a lawyer of little reputation, devoted 
for the rest of his life — according to all ap- 
pearances — to pleading for small fees, felt sud- 
denly a heavy weight tumble on his shoulders. 
Suddenly he was invested with the legislative 
order to be guardian for a young girl and an 
infant, to say nothing of a crazy sister-in-law, 
and the administration of a large fortune in 
real estate and securities. 

Ill prepared by the humbleness of his for- 
mer life for so heavy a task, he needed an as- 
sistant and had to choose him quickly. 

An insignificant deputy receives twenty-five 
letters a day written by solicitors of varied 
ambition. One needed money; another, more 
patient, generally, wanted the moon; but to 
these, as well as the others, the deputy must 
make some reply within twenty-four hours. 


Henriette. 


232 

Loidreau knew the country people well by 
having pronounced sentence upon them during 
a greater part of his life. He knew what a 
satisfaction it would be to their vanity to find 
on their smoky tables, upon returning home, a 
letter bearing their address and the signature 
of a great person. On the very next day after 
his appointment the newly-chosen deputy was 
flooded with communications, which led to the 
necessity of a secretary. Thank God! they 
were not rare. One of the heads of his party 
recommended Jules Perrin, “One of us, my 
friend, with a future before him.” 

Loidreau became convinced later that Perrin 
had a “future.” He ascertained that same 
day that he could talk well and was young. 
I have known recommendations not so well 
verified. 

Besides his diploma and his youth, Perrin 
had remarkable intelligence, and also he was as 
sedate as a Parisian of twenty-six could be, 
who had early in life a knowledge of fasting, 
and has sworn to himself to become acquainted, 
sooner or later, with indigestion. This vow 
Jules had tried to keep too soon, at the time 
when he made a journey into Egypt three or 


Henriette. 


*33 

four years before. He accompanied into 
Pharaoh’s country a political person who had 
been as lucky in money as certain actresses 
are in intrigue, because the two professions 
help each other to succeed. 

Perrin’s salary was more limited than his 
duties. Warned in advance that he would have 
all the work to do, he accepted it quietly, ac- 
cording to circumstances — escorting his master 
as secretary or following him as valet. He 
copied reports in the morning, and in the 
evening packed trunks. One day the two 
travellers parted suddenly. Had Jules abused 
the contents of the reports or the trunks ? 
That was one thing never well known. One 
thing was sure, the financier made no fuss; 
without doubt he had some backslidings rest- 
ing heavily on his conscience and feared that 
his companion did not add to his other accom- 
plishments the art of holding his tongue. 
Jules reappeared upon the boulevard with a 
smiling air, a decorated fob, his pocket-book 
full of testimonials, a. rosette in his button- 
hole ; in short as good for nothing as before. 

Fortunately for him, this young man had 
some great talents, eyes like a lynx, ears like 


234 


Henriette. 


an Apache, the scruples of a Robert Macaire, 
but above all a wonderful memory. When he 
was presented to Mile. Loidreau he asked 
himself the next moment : “ Where have I seen 
that face ? ” Suddenly he remembered. It 
was at Cairo, three years before; only then 
Mile. Loidreau was called Mine. Durand; she 
went out very little, lived with an aged person 
— her mother without doubt — in an old house 
at Cairo, and saw nobody. What had become 
of the mother ? She was most likely dead. 

As to the motive of this journey Perrin 
thought he had divined it, and that evening 
when he retired he felt he had done a good 
day’s work. 

As he was not a gossip, he said nothing, and 
kept it secret that he had ever been beyond 
Marseilles, his expedition into Egypt not being, 
for certain reasons, one of those souvenirs that 
one cares to leave his descendants. In mak- 
ing himself indispensable to the uncle, he 
studied the ground over and tried to make 
himself agreeable to the niece. He was a 
good-looking fellow in spite of his treacherous 
eye, which never looked one in the face. He 
dressed well and waltzed gracefully. At the 


Henriette. 


235 


end of six months Henriette thought she dis- 
covered that he was in love with her, and this 
discovery amused her, though it was not easy 
to amuse this melancholy beauty, but there 
are so few recreations in the country! Perrin 
was a boarder in the family at Fresnau, and 
was there five months of the year, at least. 

This interesting young man said nothing of 
his sentiments. Henriette could not look at 
him without thinking of the earthworm in 
love with a star, in which she deceived her- 
self. 

This worm had very good eyes, and when 
he turned them by stealth upon his patron’s 
niece, he had the sneaking air of a school-boy 
who looks at an apple waiting for it to fall. 
The apple fell. One evening in October, 1876, 
at Fresnau, as they were finishing dinner, ac- 
cording to custom the mail was brought in, the 
deputy sadly took his fifteen or twenty letters, 
his wife took the story in La Patrie and their 
niece opened the Figaro. Perrm, who had 
nothing to do, looked at them, with the tran- 
quil air of a well-fed cat seated in front of a 
pigeon house. 

Suddenly Henriette became very pale, left 


236 


Henrielte. 


her seat and tottering to the door disappeared 
without anybody’s taking notice of her but the 
watchful secretary. He, with a step like a deer 
went out in his turn through a glass door, 
turned a corner of the house and drawing near 
an open window, saw all that passed in the 
drawing-room. Mile. Loidreau was stretched 
upon the floor unconscious, the Figaro by her 
side ; Perrin climbed into the window put the 
paper into his pocket, and — astonishing thing 
for one so much in love — seemed to pay no 
attention to the beautiful girl lying at his feet 
in a cloud of lace. All that he took the trouble 
to do, was to press hurriedly two or three times 
an electric bell, then he went away as quickly 
as he came, and was soon out of doors. 

The servants ran, and finding their young 
mistress insensible, they thought that she had 
had time to call them before fainting. They 
used every exertion and made her come to 
herself so quickly, that the doctor, wIiq was 
sent for in great haste, found his patient in 
the avenue. 

Although a little paler than usual, she had 
a cheerful face and her eyes burned with a 
Strange excitement. The doctor, who prided 


Henrietie. 


237 


himself on being gallant to ladies and a con- 
noisseur of painting, said to her: 

“ It is nothing, I do not even need to feel 
of your pulse ! Alas ! that I am not a great 
painter! With that face, I would make such 
a Judith as never was painted before.” 

“Truly!” said she with a proud vivacity. 
“ Hold, I will take the position, the trunk of 
this tree is the body of Holophernes.” 

With arms crossed, the head and shoulders 
thrown back, the face filled with a cloud of 
disgust and hate, a flash of triumph in her 
eyes, she trampled under her feet the dead 
body of her enemy. 

“ He is dead! dead! dead!” she repeated 
with firmly closed lips. 

“ Henriette ! I beg of you ! you make me 
afraid,” said her aunt. 

“My dear niece,” said the deputy, “try 
and strike this attitude next winter; you will 
make a success of tableau vivant. Now, 
doctor, what news about the elections ? ” 

During this time Perrin, shut up in his room, 
studied the Figaro with as much care as a 
police officer would search 3, field to find a, 
corpse. 


238 


Heiiriette. 


Two days later, Loidreau sent his se retary 
to Saint Pardoult to pay his sister-in-law’s bills. 
Jules did not take the trip for the first time. 
Already he had arranged to see the insane 
woman, and' recognized at first sight the lady 
he saw at Cairo, but he had tried in vain to 
make her say one word. This day he asked 
Dr. Donoil: 

“ Any news as to the invalid’s condition ? ” 

“Nothing, save a bad attack day before 
yesterday.’" 

“ Day before yesterday! What caused it ? ” 

“Nothing known; Madame Loidreau was 
reading her paper, when she was seized with 
an excitement, and it was with great trouble 
that she was calmed. Since then she has not 
been as well as usual.” 

“ Did you examine the paper ? ” 

“ From beginning to end, without finding 
anything to explain this crisis.” 

“ Did you keep it ? ” 

“ They had to return it to her, willing or not, 
but I took note of the date and the title.” 

One more question convinced Perrin" that 
the journal in question was the same one which 
caused Henriette to faint. 


Henriette . 


2 39 


“ Now,” said he, when he was alone, “ the 
time has come to make the first stroke.” 

Sweet young man! his strokes were equal 
to dynamite bombs. 

The next day, after his visit to the asylum, 
about nine o’clock in the morning, he was 
working alone in his employer’s office. It 
was a cool day and a light fire burned in the 
fire-place. 

Henriette entered with a preoccupied air, 
and after having returned absent-mindedly the 
profound salute of her uncle’s secretary, she 
placed her feet before the fire, glancing about 
the room at the same time as if looking for 
something. 

Perrin continued his work without speaking. 

“ I am looking for the day before yesterday’s 
Figaro ,” said the young girl. “ Have you 
seen it ? ” 

Jules laid down his pen; the time to make 
his stroke had come. 

“ Without doubt,” said he, “ you refer to the 
number containing an account of the suicide.” 

He spoke in a low thrilling voice like a 
caress, and Mile. Loidreau fell, rather than 
sat, into the arm chair placed near the fire- 


240 


Henriette. 


place, for she felt her limbs tremble beneath 
her. 

“ What account? What suicide ? ” said she, 
trying to reply. “ I do not understand you.” 

“ Allow me,” said Perrin lowering his eyes, 
“ not to enter into particulars. It is about the 
dentist who made his patients insensible ; you 
know, very well. This wretch has for several 
years committed these monstrous crimes which 
his victims dare not complain of, although 
many of them had to leave their own country 
to conceal the results. 

“ The other day, however, a young girl ex- 
posed him ; the dentist was arrested at once 
and put in prison. The next day he was found 
hung in his cell. What a horrible drama! ” 

At these words Perrin arose and took a key 
from his pocket, opened “the little piece of 
furniture ” and took from it a paper carefully 
tied, and handed it to Henriette. 

“ Here it is,” said he bowing. “ I had no 
doubt that you wished to guard this document, 
and for that reason I put it away.” 

Henriette did not move her eyes, or extend 
her hand toward the young man who was 
speaking to her. At this moment, nobody 


Henriette. 


241 


would have thought of comparing her to 
Judith trampling under foot the body of 
Holophernes. From her white lips came these 



words spoken with 

difficulty. ^ ^ - 

“ What do you mean, - 
monsieur ? I do not like enigmas.” 

“No more do I,” replied the young bandit; 
“ although when I meet them, I do not rest 
until I puzzle them out. In entering this 


242 


Henrieite. 


house, chance proposed a very puzzling one to 
me; judge for yourself. At Cairo, where I 
lived some time ago, I came across, several 
times, a young French girl — too beautiful to 
pass without notice no matter where. She 
called herself, or others did, Madame Durand. 
Admit that I had reason to be surprised in 
meeting her again a little later, and discover- 
ing that she was not ‘ madame ’ but ‘ ma- 
demoiselle,’ with a different name. Meanwhile 
she had taken, not only the name of a young 
girl, but also a slender, light form. It was 
a puzzle, was it not ? I tried for a long time 
to find the right answer; it is needless to say 
that I had the discretion to investigate for my- 
self alone.” Perrin stopped as if to give time 
for two large tears to roll down Henriette’s 
cheeks ; tears of shame, also of anger. 

“Thus,” thought she' “the monster who 
ruined me, does so again by his death. Alas ! 
I rejoiced too soon, or I committed a crime ; 
I too, in rejoicing over the death of a human 
being, after having wished it for a long time. 
Unhappy creature that I am! I am revenged, 
not saved. I am not free. The horrible 
secret is not buried in the grave. Why was it 


Henriette. 


243 


not this one who hung himself ? The other, 
I had a thousand times less to fear.” 

Perrin was not a man to lose the thread of 
his ideas by seeing a woman cry. He con- 
tinued in the same soothing tone. 

“ The answer to the enigma was in this 
paper. Two women have read a certain para- 
graph of twenty lines. One of these women — 
the younger — fainted away, the other — please 
remember that I went yesterday to Saint Par- 
doult — the other’s disease has become danger- 
ously aggravated. You must admit that these 
occurrences are worth all the explanations in 
the world. What appears to me without doubt 
is, that all is ended for the best. A scamp has 
taken the law into his own hands, and between 
us, I prefer to know him to be in hell, rather 
than in prison, where he would not have been 
sent without a famous trial, and who knows 
what might have been known, what names 
spoken. I repeat it, all has ended well for you, 
for your brother, and for me.” 

“ For you? ” murmured the young girl rais- 
ing her head. 

“ Certainly, you would not be a woman if 
you had not discovered in me the feelings 


244 


Henriette. 


which you have inspired ; yesterday I admired 
you in silence, to-day, as yesterday, my life 
belongs to you. It belongs to you all the 
more, as in disappearing, this miserable 
scoundrel took with him the greatest obstacle 
which a gentleman of honor ” 

Henriette arose, and went toward the door 
without hearing more. But in passing the 
table where Perrin sat in his leather arm chair 
she said this single word: “Villain! ” 

Then she went out, to her room, and when 
alone with herself, her pride left her and once 
more the tears came into her eyes. 

Thus this frightful journey had been useless! 
At the end of an hour her energetic nature 
asserted itself. 

“After all,” thought she, “there are no 
proofs; the records of the French Consul at 
Cairo show nothing, and then, who would ever 
believe this miserable fellow ? Meanwhile 
there will always be time to do as the other 
one did.” 

She continued her ordinary life, and nobody 
would have imagined the anguish that tortured 
her soul. The end of the parliamentary vaca- 
tions caused everybody to return to Paris, 


Henriette. 


245 


where she was one of the most admired of the 
belles. 

Again in the spring of 1877, Fresnau opened 
its doors to the family. Once more, Perrin 
and Henriette found themselves side by side, 
living the same life, seated at the same table, 
without either of them beginning the struggle 
the second time. 

Several suitors were presented to the heiress, 
but she refused them all with unconquerable 
distaste. She believed she should find in 
each something infamous, like her uncle’s 
secretary ; as the sick person who is nauseated, 
believes she tastes in each new dish the flavor 
of the one which caused her nausea. That 
was the reason why she revolted at the first 
suspicion of Reygnac’s intentions toward her- 
self. 

Perrin, on his side, believed he would be 
victorious, but knew Henriette and suspected 
that the last events in the drama would be 
lively. Patient in his calculations, untiring in 
his vigilance, he waited, following his prey 
with his dull eyes, thinking that weariness 
sooner or later would make her succumb. 


246 


ffeiiriette. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

One can judge with what eagerness the un- 
happy girl escaped from Fresnau to rejoin the 
Countess de Reygnac at Montescourt. 

When she was away from the place haunted 
by Perrin, she seemed to breathe freer. Mean- 
while with an end in view — as we know — Gas- 
ton’s mother increased with all her power this 
feeling of relief, by carrying constantly this 
young girl into a world where there were only 
questions of honor, noble sentiments, and gen- 
erous devotion. These frequent visits could 
not escape the notice of Perrin, who had good 
reasons to consider them suspicious, and to 
arrange it, as we have seen, to watch them 
more or less. Meanwhile he was not the only 
one troubled about the intimacy between the 
two women. Everybody talked of it, and very 
naturally too. It was to Perrin himself, as a 
guest in the house, that the curious ones ad- 
dressed their questions to find out the news. 


Henriette. 


247 


Let us add, that Loidreau’s secretary had 
no opportunity to sing his madrigals to Henri- 
ette, that is to say, to force her to surrender. 
The young girl never put her foot inside her 
uncle’s office, neither walked in the park, days 
when she feared some unfortunate meeting. 
Writing was invented to take the place of 
speech. One morning Henriette found 
amongst her mail the following love letter: 

“ Mademoiselle, I am as patient in my wait- 
ing as I am ardent in my hope. Meanwhile you 
will be wrong to believe me a fool. Like the 
hero in a very beautiful tragedy, I am prepared 
to conquer you, to make war with kings or 
gods. But tragedy has never been to my 
taste, and is not to yours I think. That is why 
I appeal to you in simple writing, humbly as 
it belongs to my own unworthiness. Do not 
forget, that chance — allow me to bless it — 
seems to have united our destinies. Do you 
also remember that one never escapes the de- 
crees of fate ? Those who have attempted it, 
always have had good reason to repent it. 
Sooner or later it must be that the dawn of 
my happiness will break. I await that day at 
your feet.” 


248 


Hejiriette. 


The author of this charming letter signed 
his full name, like a man sure of himself. If 
Perrin could have seen Henriette’s eyes, while 
she fastened her nails, with a sort of rage, upon 
the sheet of paper which brought her this 
cynical ultimatum, he would have understood 
that his marriage was' not yet a sure thing and 
would have discovered, at least, that these 
threatening allusions had not produced any 
great effect upon the young girl, for, that 
same day, she took a carriage and drove to 
Montescourt, accompanied, as usual, by her 
maid. 

All that afternoon Reygnac’s ears ought to 
have tingled, for his mother and Henriette 
talked almost entirely of him. It was, as one 
may imagine, a very agreeable subject for the 
countess, and one upon which she willingly 
expatiated. She told, or rather retold, Gaston’s 
life from the time he had the measles when 
six years of age, to his wound during the war. 

She enumerated the prizes that he had ob- 
tained when in college, and was indiscreet 
enough to tell of successes of another kind 
which had distinguished him later in life. She 
told of his duels and pretended to grieve over 


Henriette. 


249 

them. In brief she sketched a portrait ap- 
parently not very flattering, but having in 
reality all that was necessary to turn the head, 
and make the heart of a young girl of twenty 
throb. In some respects, Henriette’s head 
and heart were as aged as one of sixty. A 
youthful mind, like the colors in a butterfly, 
cannot resist a storm. But the more the un- 
happy girl saw opening under her feet the abyss 
at the bottom of which an abject being waited 
for his prey, the more she listened with charmed 
and open ears to these recitations, where there 
was only a question of passionate impulses — 
often blind, but always generous, adventurous 
freaks, chivalrous extravagances. In the eyes 
of this Andromeda, fettered to a real fatality, 
Reygnac appeared like Perseus, victorious and 
a saviour. He was to her the veritable hero of 
the fable, not so much a god as a man to be 
loved, but yet more than a man. 

Seeing her brilliant eyes, her heaving chest, 
and her earnest face, Madame Reygnac made 
a mistake and thought that Henriette loved 
her .son. One easily believes what one wishes. 
This mother, eager to assure happiness to her 
son, and her own at the same time, thought 


25 ° 


Henriette. 


she saw opening before her the door to suc- 
cess. She redoubled her eloquence, became 
more clear in her hints. Finally, believing that 
the time had arrived to make her grand stroke, 
with eyes full of tears, torn by maternal 
passion, she ended by saying that “ She would 
die blessing God if before she left the world 
she could call Henriette her daughter.” 

Tearful as she was, the dowager was none 
the less discerning, and what she saw now as- 
tonished her, for she read, or at least thought 
she read, in the girl’s face, the bewildered look 
of a shepherdess to whom one speaks of marry- 
ing a prince. 

“ Really,” thought Madame de Reygnac, 
“ does this young girl love my son as much as 
this!” 

Then calling up all her cleverness she said 
aloud, “ I beg your pardon, my dear child, for 
giving you the tiresome sight of seeing an old 
lady cry. What can I do ? One can dream 
at any age. God knows, that the dreams of 
my girlhood were not fulfilled, I feel that it 
will be even so with this one of my old _age. 
My poor Gaston is not worthy of you! ” 

Henriette sighed and turned her head. She 


Henriette. 


2 5i 


knew well, poor girl, which one was unworthy 
of the other. It was all she could do to keep 
from saying so to Madame de Reygnac. 

“ O madame,” replied she with a touching 
inflection of the voice, “do not say that! ” 

“ Certainly,” replied the countess, continuing 
her march onward, “my son is unworthy of 
nobody. But after the language of the world, 
the difference in fortune is the barrier, the 
most impassable that can be raised between 
you two.” 

“ No,” replied Henriette, “ I know of more 
difficult ones to break through. You do not 
know all, madame. Believe me, do not ever 
speak to me again of that which is impossible.” 

“ It will not be impossible if you love my 
son.” 

“For heaven’s sake,” said Henriette, “do 
not insist. You do not suspect how much 
you make me suffer, of all that you bring up 
of the past. I began to suffer very young. 
Meanwhile, do not have this idea, that I re- 
fuse your son, or that his being poor has any- 
thing to do with it. If I could be his wife to- 
morrow, I would bless God.” 

Then Mademoiselle Loidreau, who appeared 


252 


Henriette. 


very much agitated, sent for her carriage and 
left, but not without kissing Madame de Rey- 
gnac in such a way that showed that she did 
not bear her any ill will. 

When alone, the countess put aside all her 
emoti :ns, true and false, and reflected seri- 
ously. 

She certainly lacked neither judgment nor 
intelligence ; but women lose their sharpness 
of judgment when the object concerned is a 
thing ardently longed for. They then con- 
found their desires with good sense and throw 
all, pell-mell, into the same side of the balance. 

Of these reflections, connected with the 
recollection of what her son had said to her 
before, Madame de Reygnac drew the follow- 
ing conclusions: “Henriette loved Gaston. 
She believed herself separated from him for- 
ever on account of the words spoken in pride 
on a certain evening by the young man. Also, 
according to all probability, some little love 
affair that she had had in society was on her 
conscience.” 

Summed up, the marriage was from this 
time on merely child’s play, since Gaston’s 
rple was to not say “No,” when asked to say 


Henriette. 


253 


“Yes;” a thing which he had solemnly 
promised to carry out. 

As to the little offences of the intended 
bride — her future mother-in-law would under- 
take to confess her and absolve her. The 
penitent seemed so contrite! Meanwhile, had 
she not in her pocket what would pay for the 
indulgences ? The essential thing was, to 
change as soon as possible all these grand 
sentences and beautiful scruples on both sides, 
into a fair and good engagement; and without 
loss of time the countess went to Reygnac’s 
office to make the last attack. She felt so 
puffed up with pride at her success that, thin 
and spare as she was, the door seemed to her 
hardly wide enough to pass through. She 
contained herself, as she suspected that others 
might not join in her enthusiasm ; but should 
she have to drag by force one of these two 
victims to the altar, this last battle of her life 
should be gained. 

“You will remember,” said she, when she 
was seated in an armchair, “ of a promise you 
made me one day? ” 

“Poor mamma!” replied Gaston laying 
down his pen, “ I have promised you so many 


254 


Henriette . 


things in my life! I wonder that you pay any 
attention to them.” 

“ Let us talk seriously. You promised to 
say ‘Yes,’ if nothing more was necessary only 
your consent to make you Henriette Loidreau’s 
husband. It is for this I come to you.” 

“Yes; but is it possible ?” 

“It is more than possible, it is done. You 
say c Yes,’ do you not ? ” 

As one sees, the countess anticipated some- 
what the result. 

Gaston did not say “Yes.” He remained 
silent, knit his brows and his thoughts flew to 
Sabine. While he buried his face in his 
hands without replying, his mother spoke 
again — 

“ You will be a fool, then, all your life. But 
this time I will not let you be lost. As to my- 
self, think that if you refuse, I shall die. It 
is the hope of this last chance that has sus- 
tained me until now, not only in face of poverty, 
which is nothing, but in the face of debts. 
Ah! the debts! you laugh at them, you men; 
but us, they kill. Meanwhile, it is I who owe 
them. Nobody would lend you a sou. But 
there are some people who have consented to 


Henriette. 


2 55 


take as security the word of an old lady, but 
still more, the dowry of her future daughter- 
in-law. If I die to-morrow these people will 
say that I have stolen from them ! And you 
will be the cause of it! ” 

“ Mother,” said Ga.ston, “ do not get so ex- 
cited. At this hour we ought to be calm.” 

“ How can I be calm when it is a question 
for me to know if I am to have a little rest at 
the close of my life? Meanwhile, do not think 
that I expect to gain by your fortune. Listen, 
Gaston, you will give me a little apartment, 
not too high up, on account of my old legs, 
which our rooms in the house-top have tired 
out. You will come to see me often, and 
there at last I shall rest. I can sleep at night 
without being haunted by these frightful bills. 
My heart will not bound then at the sound of 
a bell announcing a visitor, or at the sight of 
a handwriting, too well known, upon a letter. 
In the streets I shall receive no longer those 
kind of bows that paralyze, like a writ served 
by an officer. Above all, I shall be easy as 
to your future.” 

Madame de Reygnac seemed very much 
affected while pronouncing these words ; I do 


256 


Henriette. 


not undertake to say that she really was. As 
to Gaston, he did not make a motion. 

“After all,” said the countess, with some 
force, “would you then break your word, sim- 
ply because it was given to your mother ? ” 

At these words Gaston raised his head. 

“I shall keep my word,” said he. “Already 
now, I consider myself as engaged to Mile. 
Loidreau. ' You know me. It is as if the 
thing was done. Only I exact that it shall 
remain as now, until after the elections and my 
resignation is sent in to the Minister. I will 
not have it look as if I sold my service to 
Loidreau: It is only a delay of one week, the 
hardest creditor would grant that much.” 

The countess had had in her life too many 
occasions to put them to the test, but certain 
remembrances made her see at this time that 
all would end here if this delay was not granted. 
And this time the difficulty was not so great. 
Still it was necessary to confide to the claim- 
ants the happy transformation which was to 
take place in Reygnac's fortunes. 

It was also necessary, at the same time, to 
secure the means to meet the expenses of the 
wedding trousseau. It was in fact necessary 


Henriette. 


257 


to take a trip to Paris, and in this state of 
affairs Gaston persisted in putting off the final 
step ; the best thing was, to let matters rest for 
the time being. In this way Henriette’s visits 
to Montescourt were necessarily cut off — a 
wise precaution. After the interviews which 
had taken place and which the countess con- 
sidered, rightly or wrongly, as decisive, what 
would the young girl have thought if her fiance, 
by proxy, had met her the next day and talked 
of the rain or beautiful weather ? 

Madame de Reygnac had a quick eye, a little 
too much so sometimes, as we have seen. 
She made, at once, that evening, preparations 
for a short absence, and wrote Henriette a 
note to announce her return the day before 
the elections: 

“ Without losing one hour,” said she, to her 
young friend, “ I will come, my darling, to em - 
brace you, to congratulate the newly elected, 
and to talk with you of graver matters.” 

The next day Madame de Reygnac ieft 
Montescourt by the express train — this time, 
in a first-class compartment. As the son, 
standing on the steps, was pressing her hand for 

the last time, a servant coming on horseback 
17 


2 5 8 


He?iriette. 


from Fresnau appeared on the platform. He 
saw Gaston’s mother and came directly to her. 

“ You have a letter ? ” asked she. 

“ No, Madame la Countess, not a letter, only 
a bouquet.” 

Poor Henriette! What had she to write? 

Madame de Reygnac considered that this 
bouquet was worth more than all the letters in 
the world. She would not have given it for 
less than five millions. 

“ Stop,” said she, taking out one flower and 
putting it in the button-hole of her son’s coat. 
“ It is as well that you should have your part; 
she has charming tact, this little one.” 

“ It is then true!” thought Gaston, as he 
watched the train moving off. 


Henriette. 


259 


CHAPTER XX. 



j?^ ASTON walked home 
and waited in the gar- 
den until the hour to 
\ commence work. The morn- 
ing was glorious, but it was an 
October one. We say a beau- 
tiful autumn, as we say a beautiful 
old age in speaking of an octogenarian. Of 
all seasons, autumn is the saddest for those 
whom hope does not rejoice by her eternal 
sun. 

Gaston knew that this shining orb would 
never break upon his life. 

As he walked with a slow and listless step 
around his domain, he recapitulated with the 
clearness of thought which the calmness of the 
morning gave him, the situation that the future 
had prepared for him. It was very simple and 
a thing that is seen every day. He loved one, 
and married another. His conscience was 


260 


Henriette. 


honest, his mind just, and good sense reigned 
there. So no need of grand speeches. He 
did not swear to himself to detest Henriette, 
on the contrary he did not promise even not 
to deceive her. He comprehended that only 
one woman could make him happy, which 
convinced him that happiness was not for hini. 
A like discovery leads, according to one’s age, 
to divers results. At twenty years of age, they 
wish to kill themselves, but they rarely do 
so. At twenty-five, they commit some folly; 
at thirty, they coolly amputate, but the opera- 
tion is only the more painful. Nobody up to 
the present time has recovered from chloro- 
forming the heart. 

For the moment, Gaston’s first duty was to 
stop going to Barjols. So he decided imme- 
diately that he would go there that very day, 
to tell them that they would not see him there 
any more. Meanwhile, the elections took 
place in a week, and the very next day, fare- 
well to the sous-prefecture at Montescourt. 
The three thousand solicitors registered at 
Place Beauvau would have at least one place 
to contend for. In the midst of all this, the 
clock struck eight, and Lefevre’s glasses ap- 


He?iriettc. 


261 


peared upon the scene. The morning was 
spent in working hard, for Reygnac was a 
worker, and his secretary had ended by saying 
of him in the city: 

“This young man has the making of an 
administrator ; he has made an astonishing 
gain in five months.” 

In the afternoon, his signatures given, the 
administrator became a simple mortal, little 
satisfied with his fate. Without making a 
toilette, wearing still in his coat the rose that 
his mother had placed there, he took the train 
to go to say adieu to Sabine. The marquise 
and her two children noticed their visitor was 
sad, but they thought his troubled air was 
caused by political preocupation. 

The conversation dragged painfully; Gas- 
ton talked a little, and of everything but the 
one thing he wished to say. To make amends, 
he thought a great deal of one of whom he had 
no right; he adored Sabine. As to her, she 
never had made more fancy work. Let the 
experienced draw their own conclusions. 

The hour for his departure struck. Gaston 
arose; he was 'going away just as he came, 
not having the courage to speak. But fate 


262 


Henriette. 


had decreed otherwise. His friend wished to 
go with him to the little gate at the end of the 
park, which was used by foot passengers. 

“ Will you come too, Sabine ? ” said Raoul 
to his sister. 

The young girl took her straw hat and fol- 
lowed her brother hastily. In crossing the 
yard where the saddle horses were kept, Raoul 
said to the young people : 

“ Walk on, I will stop a moment to examine 
Romulus’s feet; he was lame this morning.” 

Often before under the escort of this busy 
chaperon, Sabine and Gaston had found them- 
selves alone for a short time. 

This day, as if the tete-e-tete was an un- 
common occurrence, they felt a strange em- 
barrassment and suddenly could think of noth- 
ing to say. 

To break this dangerous silence into which 
both were plunged, Sabine caught hold of the 
first branch that she saw; it was a branch of 
a rose tree, and had one rose on it. 

“ The laws of hospitality,” said she picking 
it, “ forbid my letting you leave with that faded 
thing in your button-hole. Here is a fresh 
flower for you ! ” 



»» 


4t Here is a fresh flower for you. 


»: w hm w * »»h i’ mmim t i« Wttttim i > I Mtf i l l I 


264 Henrieite . 

Gaston stopped suddenly and looked at 
Sabine. She was very pretty at this moment, 
with a sweet, almost tender air, whilst she pre- 
sented him with the rose, the last of the 
season. The rose was a little pale, paler than 
the one who offered it, for Sabine asked her- 
self on second thought, if it would not have 
been better to have held her tongue, or if the 
remedy was not worse than the disease. What 
would Count de Reygnac think ? What would 
he reply ? 

Poor Sabine! for once when she risked so 
much, she had no luck. With a shrinking 
face and a voice that sounded almost hard, 
Gaston replied to her: 

“ This faded thing as you call it — with 
reason, ought to remain where it is, mademoi- 
selle.” 

As two beautiful eyes were turned toward 
him, full of sorrowful astonishment which only 
added to their touching beauty, too touching, 
alas ! 

“ I ought to keep this flower,” added he. 
“ My fiancee gathered it for me.” 

The fiancee in question, supposing her to 
be, would not have felt much flattered could 


Henriette. 


265 


she have seen the air with which these words 
were spoken. He could not have said it less 
tenderly, had he told of receiving a dagger 
stroke in place of a flower. 

It was as he felt really, a cruel and unex- 
pected anguish. His sacrifice surpassed what 
he had anticipated, in coming to Barjols. At 
this moment, when he sought in vain for the 
words in which to say adieu to Sabine, he 
realized that she loved him. 

How, under the sting of this misfortune had 
he allowed himself to make this brutal an- 
nouncement, irreparable surely, of his ap- 
proaching marriage with another ? He could 
not explain it to himself. Thus — like this — a 
thorough-bred horse throws himself upon the 
naked sword he sees flashing before his breast. 
Gaston had promised to marry Henriette ; he 
believed himself bound, at least he knew to 
what kind of a mother he had given his word. 
Above all, with a person like Sabine, upon the 
slope where they were both gliding, the least 
shade of dissimulation would be an unworthy 
insult. 

Mademoiselle de Barjols, a girl too high- 
minded to lie, kept a good countenance. Qne 


266 


Henriette. 


could hear a slight trembling in her voice when 
she said: 

“Ah! really ? Are you to be married ? ” 

“ Yes, and I suppose that I do not need to 
tell you with whom. For two months there 
has been talk of this marriage, and you must, 
more than once, have heard the reports that 
were current^ 

“Yes, but — but my brother said they were 
ridiculous.'” 

“The good fellow! I have not confided 
my secrets to him, at all events. What I have 
come to tell you, is known only to my mother 
and you. I count upon your silence.” 

In spite of her efforts to conceal what she 
resented, Sabine could not help asking this 
question, nor completely disguise her vexation. 

“ I would like to know why you choose me 
as your confidante.” She continued to walk 
slowly by Gaston’s side, pulling off one by one 
the petals of the rose that he would not take. 
She thought also that it would be necessary to 
pluck from her heart certain thoughts, known 
only to herself. At least she hoped she had 
not betrayed herself. In the stable yard be- 
hind them, the blacksmith’s hammer resounded, 


Henriette. 


267 


beating the anvil at regular intervals. Never 
since has Gaston been able to hear this ring- 
ing sound, without its bringing before him the 
walk in the park at Barjols, and Sabine offer- 
ing him the rose. 

After a short silence he replied, “ You will 
understand why I have chosen you for a confi- 
dante. Once, when I was a child, my father 
built a new pigeon house. But for many long 
weeks the pigeons refused to sit on their nests. 
Nothing could keep them from the tower which 
had been their former dwelling place, and 
toward which for so long a time, from all parts 
of the country, they had taken their rapid 
flight. To force them to forget the way, it was 
necessary to demolish it. Well, then! my 
heart will also refuse, I know it, to forget the 
dear dwelling toward which its love flies. Al- 
ways, in spite of everything, it will return here, 
and therefore — I have come to demolish the 
tower.” 

Sabine made no reply. She carried to her 
lips the calyx without its leaves, and set her 
teeth into it, as if to taste its bitterness. 

Gaston continued: “ Has your brother, who 
pretends that this marriage is a ridiculous 


268 


Henriette . 


one, told you of my youth? Has he said that 
I have caused my mother unhappiness, that I 
have stripped her of the little left her by an- 
other spendthrift? To-day, she imposes a 
penance upon me, or rather something yet 
more unavoidable, a restitution. The restitu- 
tion is called Henriette Loidreau. I have ac- 
cepted it — accepted, you hear me? not asked, 
for my mother did that. Now, am I one of 
those who are allowed to choose their own wife? 
I know a house where I was greeted by the most 
cordial friendship, the most kindly hospitality 
and exquisite grace. What would they have 
said to me, in this house, if I had allowed my 
heart to hope and spoken my dream aloud? 
Would they not have closed the doors against 
me?” 

She persisted in her silence. 

“ Have pity upon me ! ” said he becoming 
excited. “Tell me that I am right, that I did 
right, not to speak, that they would have igno- 
miniously refused me! Tell me that I am 
good for nothing in the world except to orna- 
ment the sous-prefecture of Montescourt. Is 
it true that I have lost nothing in keeping 
silence, that I shall lose nothing by marrying 


Hefiriette . 


269 


the one that I do not love ? If I could hear it 
from your own lips it would be a supreme 
consolation! Ay! well, your silence is the 
best of replies.” 

“You have compared me to a tower,” said 
Sabine sighing. “Towers do not speak, above 
all when they are demolished.” 

At this moment, Raoul joined them — pre- 
occupied with Romulus. They had changed 
his shoes after examining his feet, still the 
lameness continued. Nothing ailed the foot, 
but for all that, here was a useless beast! 

“Ah! my dear friend,” said Raoul, “you 
are fortunate not to have any horses! ” 

“Yes,” said Reygnac, “I am fortunate, 
very fortunate.” 

They had reached the little gate at the end 
of the park, Raoul put the key in the lock. 
“ We shall see you again soon? ” 

“ I fear not,” replied Gaston ; “ we are in 
the midst of our busy week and I shall be busy 
from morning till night ; afterward I go on a 
vacation.” 

“ Go ! good luck to your candidate and 
much pleasure to you on your vacation. You 
must need recreation,” 


270 


Henriette. 


“You would not believe how much I need 
it. But it is time for the train; Adieu! ” 
Gaston shook the marquis’s hand and re- 
mained for some time bowing very low before 
Sabine. Then he passed through the gate, and 
with a loud sound it closed upon him. 


Henriette . 


271 


CHAPTER XXI. 

The next day but one was Wednesday of 
the famous week. Loidreau, without waiting 
to be announced, rushed like a whirlwind into 
the office of the sous-prefet. In this man, 
with drawn features, red eyes, and nervous 
gestures, you would never have recognized the 
grave person who would sit an entire after- 
noon without moving, to try two infringements, 
condemn three drunkards, and regulate the 
accounts of a farm servant. 

“Here is an awkward thing!” exclaimed 
he, throwing himself into the first chair. 

“What is it?” sad Reygnac, struck by the 
piteous look of his future uncle. “ What has 
happened to you? ’ 

“ It happens that my secretary has left. 
The fellow chose his time well! ” 

“ Has Perrin left you? ” 

“He took the express train this morning, 
and is not far from Paris, if he has not been 


272 


Henriette. 


upset — which would please me very much. 
I am in a fine mess! ” 

“ What passed between you? ” 

“ Between us, nothing. But do you un- 
derstand that this vulgar fellow imagined him- 
self in love with my niece? He told, her so 
yesterday, and I think that it was not the first 
time, either. Henriette did wrong to send 
him about his business before several people.'” 

“What!” said Reygnac, much surprised, 
“you think she did wrong?” 

“Oh! my dear fellow, pardon me, I forgot 
to whom I was speaking. I am supposed to 
know nothing, it is true. But I am not blind, 
and in spite of Madame de Reygnac’s clever- 
ness, one can never make me believe that 
Henriette goes three times a week to Montes- 
court, only to talk with her. Believe me, 
however, that I am delighted with what has 
happened. All the same, it would not have 
mattered much to you if my niece had been 
patient one week longer. In a time like this, 
we must be careful of people’s feelings! Es- 
pecially when we need them.” 

“Were you present at the explanation?” 

“ No, but I presume it was a lively one; 


Henriette. 


273 


Henriette came to me with such a face — 
What an energetic woman ! She was not will- 
ing that Perrin should stay another night under 
my roof, I should say her roof. I made some 
objections. But in three words she reduced 
me to silence. When one is not in one’s own 
house — — Finally, I had to put the creature 
out of the house. If you could have seen his 
look! you would have said that it was he who 
turned me out. What a beast! ” 

“ He is a fool! ” 

44 That is precisely what I said to him. 
4 Monsieur,’ said he, with an exasperating 
calmness, 4 the biggest fool here is not the one 
whom you think it to be.’ ” 

“Hum! I hope you asked for the key to 
the 4 little desk.’ ” 

44 You can believe it. But who can assure 
me that the scamp has not taken precautions? 
Whatever happens, I am deprived of my right 
arm at the very moment of going to the front. 
What do you think of the balloting Sunday?” 

44 1 have no fears. But to tell the truth, for 
two days I have seen nobody. Friends and 
enemies seem to be dead.” 

44 Do you find it so, too ? I am struck by 
18 


274 


Henriette . 


it myself. This morning the Democrat hardly 
insulted me. Eh bien! it is not a good sign. 
Look out for bombs at the l^t hour! As for 
myself, I know one person who will not go to 
bed until Sunday night. No secretary! This 
devilish fool will never get to Heaven, I am 
sure of that. Adieu, I must be off/’ 

The day before the all important one — Sat- 
urday morning — the bomb suspected by Loi- 
dreau burst over all Montescourt. To each 
elector the mail brought a Paris newspaper, 
crushing the marshal’s candidate. This time 
it did not throw out vulgar abuse, set off by in- 
sults thrown at hazard and hastily, without pro- 
priety or proofs. The article, falsely cunning, 
penetrated into Loidreau’s weakest points, 
like an Italian dagger into the defects of an 
armour. The most dangerous thing about it 
was, they pierced into his old love affairs, 
political alliances, and promises made ; threats 
which had escaped him, all, even the most in- 
timate secrets of the electoral affair. One 
could read between the lines, a veiled but in- 
sulting allusion to certain projects of marriage. 

A practised hand— Perrin’s, one could not 
mistake it— had stripped Loidreau and left him 


Henrietie. 


275 


naked, a humbug, upon the political field, 
amid the distrust of his adherents and the 
jeers of his adversaries, and without any means 
of replying. In the first place, the time was 
wanting; in the next, the person who could 
have dictated the reply was not there ; finally, 
what was worse, it all was true. 

The effect produced by this exposure of two 
hundred lines was enormous. This vigorous 
article, crisp and cold as an iceberg, without 
one light word, without one useless adjective, 
had in the indictment a cold bearing and 
dangerous precision. After these three weeks 
of provincial eloquence and third-class prose, 
one read at last an article written by a talented 
person. 

“This Perrin has done well!” said the 
people, who were able to understand it. 

Loidreau did not need to rack his brains to 
appreciate the motive of the writer of the arti- 
cle. With his native good sense, sharpened 
by his experience in the electoral world, he 
prophesied. 

“ This wretch of a Perrin never did anything 
so good when he worked for me. Magalas 
will exult, I am sure of it. The idiot! He 


276 


Henriette. 


ought to tremble. If I am beaten this rene- 
gade of a Jules will become master of the 
parish.” 

At last the great day, October 14th, arrived, 
foggy and dark, and upon forty thousand battle 
fields the silent musketry of bulletins began. 
At eight o’clock in the evening, the sous-pre- 
fecture of Montescourt looked like the head- 
quarters of a general, where every five minutes 
a mounted policeman brought, in his saddle 
bags, the result of voting in a neighboring 
parish. For those cantons at a distance, the 
telegraph worked without ceasing. 

In the offices, open only for the influential 
heads of the two parties, Lefevre and the 
subordinate employes recorded the number 
of votes, whilst in Reygnac’s office, the mar- 
shal’s candidate and five or six officers of high 
rank smoked their cigars and waited for the 
news. 

Upon the street, outside the gate, a thousand 
people waited; many of the husbands had 
brought their wives and children “to see,” 
although the feeble light from four gas jets 
did not allow them to see a great deal. 

From time to time, by Reygnac’s order, a 


Henriette. 


277 


servant walked down the road to the gate, and 
very proud of his importance, announced, in 
a loud voice, the latest news received. Then 
from the crowd, for a moment silent, a low mur- 
mur would arise, without shouts, excitement, or 
tumult. In Paris it would have been a good 
occasion to strangle two or three policemen. 
But they were one hundred and fifty leagues 
from Paris, and all these good people would 
not have known how to go to work to kill a fly. 

The vote at Montescourt, foretold in ad- 
vance, had been overwhelming against Loi- 
dreau. But in the rural districts, Magalas was 
beaten. Meanwhile he could have resisted 
better if they had been able to forsee it. At 
ten o’clock they commenced to talk of a second 
ballot, and the interest in the combat became 
serious. Nevertheless, the tranquillity of the 
public was such that nearly everybody de- 
serted the square. A fine rain was falling. 
Only some advanced Republicans held out, 
forming little groups under their umbrellas. 
(At all times, commissioners are afraid of 
colds.) In Reygnac’s office the conversation 
dragged ; Loidreau had reached the limit of 
human endurance, and stretched out in an 


278 


Henriette. 


arm-chair, gave himself up to serious reflec- 
tions. Meanwhile, he had got into the habit 
of not sleeping. At midnight the second ballot 
was a certain fact, and the officers returned to 
their homes with long faces — a prey to dark 
presentiments. 

If the marshal’s candidate was not able to 
get the advantage over this easy ground, how 
would it be elsewhere? 

About two o’clock in the morning Reygnac 
sent his telegram to the prefecture and to the 
minister. Neither of the candidates was 
elected, but Loidreau had a slight advantage. 

In fifteen days it would be necessary to be- 
gin anew, and if taken together, the results of 
this first battle were not favorable to the 16th 
of May, the party would be in a difficult posi- 
tion for the second. 

Loidreau took leave of Reygnac with a sober 
face. At heart, he thought that the sous- 
prefet seemed indifferent and lacked firmness. 
He could not refrain from saying so. 

“What matters it,” said Gaston, who did 
not feel in the best of spirits. “My resigna- 
tion will be sent in to-morrow morning.” 

“ Monsieur,” replied the deputy coldly, “ one 


Henriette. 


279 


does not give his resignation in the presence 
of the enemy. Remember, after all, only for 
you, Henriette would not have been so hard 
on that stubborn Perrin. If he had not left 
me, I should have been deputy now. Do not 
be angry with me if I am nervous this evening. 
This battle has cost me 40,000 francs, without 
counting my trouble. One would be nervous 
at least.” 

The uncle and the future nephew parted, at 
heart not pleased with each other. 

The next day it was generally known that 
the attempt of the 16th of May was abortive. 
From this moment the sous-prefecture be- 
came a suspected place, where nobody dared 
to be seen. 


28 o 


Henriette. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

Certainly if there was an officer in France 
who had good reason to remain calm in the 
midst of this general dismay, it was Gaston de 
Reygnac. What mattered his position to him? 
He was going to have a situation which all the 
ministers in the republic would have nothing 
to do with, save the minister of finance, who 
would pay him his yearly income. 

However, the morning after the voting he 
awoke in a bad humor. He scented, like a 
sickly odor, failure. At any rate, he was not 
the composer of the play ; all the same he had 
acted an insignificant part, but it was unsuc- 
cessful, and in spite of all his philosophy, he 
could not help trembling under the hisses he 
expected to hear. 

At the usual hour Lefevre arrived, and his 
looks rested sadly on his chief, as a shepherd 
with a tender heart sighs as he looks at a 
growing lamb. “ Poor little thing! You have 


Henriette. 


281 


not long to live, one of these days we shall see 
your cutlets upon the table.” 

This look saddened Gaston, he felt in his 
heart the cold feeling of a vague presentiment. 
It seemed to him that some unknown misfor- 
tune threatened him. 

Thus, at certain important moments, at the 
time of distressful determination, we hear 
within ourselves the faint echo of some uneasy 
rumor. 

They say, that on the brink of the dark 
stream, the voices of those who have loved us 
— cry out, “Take care ! ” Salutary voices, too 
rarely headed ! Those who speak to us, are so 
far away! 

Already, Gaston found Montescourt unbear- 
able. He felt the need of change, to see 
other faces. Toward the middle of the day 
he took the train for Saint Pardoult. 

“ At least,” said he with a sad smile, “ I 
ought to pay a visit to my future mother-in- 
law.” 

Doctor Doniol received him with the same 
consideration as if the 16th of May had been 
a triumph. The good man, engrossed with his 
patients, his stuffed animals and his family, 


282 


Hejiriette. 


did not see in these last elections anything 
more than in the ordinary elections. He did 
not know that, already another had applied for 
his place and that before six months, recall 
and dismissal, the mother of poverty, would 
come to seek him behind these gates. 

“Will you go over to the house, monsieur?” 
asked he. “We have several new cases.” 

“No, I came simply for an airing. Let me 
see only the poor lady in whom I am inter- 
ested — • — ” 

“ Madame Loidreau ? She represents that 
the trial of her case is finished, and that she 
must now go before the judge. She still be- 
lieves that you are her lawyer; more than 
ever, you inspire her with confidence. She is 
very calm, nevertheless, with numerous half 
lucid intervals.” 

Some moments later, Doctor Doniol ushered 
the Count de Reygnac into the presence of the 
sick lady. 

“ Here is your lawyer,” said he smiling. “ I 
will leave you to talk together.” 

The old lady, without leaving her arm-chair, 
held out her hand to Gaston. Then, address- 
ing the doctor, whom she took for the jailer, 


He7iriette. 


283 


and pointing to the attendant, who never left 
her, she said gravely, “ I hope that I shall be 
permitted to confer with my lawyer, without 
the jailer assisting at the interview.” 

Doctor Doniol made a sign to the attendant 
to go out. He left also, a moment after, 
p “Now, monsieur, let us talk seriously,” 
commenced Madame Loidreau, passing her 
hand over her face to steady her ideas. 

“ Here I am, to be sent before a jury, and 
between us, I expected it. The question is 
to defend me, and that, you will see, is diffi- 
cult.” 

“ I am sure not,” protested Reygnac, “ for 
you are not guilty; I know it better than any- 
body else. Make an effort, madame, and try 
to remember.” 

“ My dear monsieur, you are sent to me by 
my daughter, my poor Henriette; that is 
sufficient for me. A lawyer is like a confessor ; 
I will tell you everything without any hesitation. 
At first ; whatever you may say, I am forced 
to admit, that I am guilty; that I did kill the 
child, only it is impossible for me to recall 
what I did with the body, I was so ill after- 
ward.” 


284 


Henriette. 


With a bewildered air, her eyes staring 
vacantly, she pushed under her black lace 
cap the gray locks which escaped. Reygnac 
looked at her sorrowfully. In a few weeks he 
would be the son-in-law of this crazy woman ! 
Touching her shoulder to attract her attention, 
he asked her, “ How could a mother as good 
as you kill her child ? ” 

At this question, she left her chair and 
walked about the room, wringing her hands. 
Then she seemed to suddenly make a resolu- 
tion and stopped before Reygnac. 

“Mon Dieu!” moaned she, “I must tell 
everything to you, for you may be able to save 
us all. Monsieur, upon all that I hold most 
dear in this world and the next, upon my soul 
and upon my daughter’s, the child that I killed 
was not mine! ” 

Poor woman! it was touching. She was 
still beautiful, and astonishingly majestic as 
she drew up her thin body and raised her 
trembling hands toward heaven. But why 
this idea, which she clung to without ceasing, 
of an infant killed? Gaston tried to make 
the crazy woman talk. 

“ What was it that caused you to do this 


Henriette. 


285 

horrible deed?” asked Reygnac. “What 
will you reply to the accusation ? ” 

“Alas!” said she, dropping her arms, “I 
know nothing about it. You must understand 
that I would let myself be condemned a dozen 
times sooner than to betray my daughter’s mis- 
fortune. It was precisely to conceal that, that 
I committed the crime ! ” 

A vague presentiment of something horrible, 
startled Reygnac, but he repulsed it before 
having it clearly proved. Was he not face to 
face with a crazy woman, who raved about the 
death of a child who was living and in perfect 
health? As he arose, incapable of listening 
longer to this grievous profanation, and giving 
up the idea of being able to obtain one sensi- 
ble word, he noticed the mysterious bag of 
which the doctor had spoken. The sight of it 
gave him the idea of asking Madame Loidreau 
this question: 

“ You always have the journal? ” 

“ Yes,” said she, putting her finger on her 
lips, “it is the only proof of my child’s inno- 
cence. Poor Henriette! others besides her 
have been the victims of this monster. Read 
it yourself and you will see.” 


286 


Henriette. 


She unfolded the paper and spread it before 
Gaston, and with her lean finger she pointed 
to the paragraph, the reading of which some 
months before had caused Henriette to faint. 

“ But then,” stammered Reygnac, ready to 
faint himself, “this child?” 

“ He owed his birth to the most horrible of 
crimes; I killed it. You are frightened, are 
you not ? Ah ! monsieur, you can well see 
that it concerned my child’s honor. Wait, 
listen to the story. It is necessary that you 
should know it in order to defend us and to 
save us.” 

Then, believing that she was talking to her 
defender, the poor woman told all. Her 
daughter was paced under the care of Doctor 
Z — — ; the governess who went with her, struck 
with terror at the sight of the instruments, 
retreated outside the operating room. Then 
the discovery and fatal results of the violent 
outrage; the unfortunate girl’s father died 
suddenly from the shock of the news, the 
mother was obliged to take Henriette away, 
the sojourn in Egypt under a false name, the 
return with a child, called to all, Henriette’^ 
brother. 


He?iriette. 


287 


At this moment, Madame Loidreau ex- 
pressed herself calmly ; evidently she had for- 
gotten who was the sad heroine of the drama 
which she recited. The wheel-work of memory 
still worked, but darkness had settled over her 
brain. 

Gaston full of horror, incapable of speaking 
one word, felt his face and hands bathed in a 
cold perspiration. Ah! he understood now, 
why Henriette’s face contracted in so strange 
a manner when they offered the child, — whom 
everybody believed to be her brother — to her 
to kiss. 

He made an effort to ask: 

“ Where is the governess? ” 

“ In a convent,” tranquilly replied the crazy 
woman. “Perhaps she is dead, she adored 
my daughter.” 

Then she coolly resumed her recital, reliev- 
ing her benumbed conscience of the heavy 
burden which had overwhelmed it for years. 
It was such a horrible thing, this mother de- 
stroying, unconsciously, the future of her be- 
loved daughter, that Reygnac almost wished 
to put his hands on her mouth to stop this 
unconscious sacrilege. But with that egotism 


Henriette. 


288 

which justifies a man who escapes from a ship- 
wreck, he thought of himself first, and said to 
himself: 

“ What might have happened, if chance 
had not led me here; would this infamous 
marriage have been consummated? ” 

Suddenly the cloud shut down again and the 
darkness clouded anew the poor creature’s life- 
less intelligence. 

Her sentences became incoherent, losing all 
meaning. Presently Madame Loidreau burst 
into peals of laughter, then uttered groans and 
cries. A relapse was coming on ; Gaston, 
frightened, called the attendant, and without 
trying to see the doctor again, he left, asking 
himself if he was not crazy too, to take the 
ravings of a crazy woman seriously. 

However, between what he had heard and 
what he had read, the evidence was too direct 
not to produce a strong probability, at least a 
terrible doubt. He must, at any cost, find out 
at once, but how? By what means? One only, 
was possible; an explanation with Henriette. 

What an interview ! Atrocious, if the mother 
had told the truth, distressing, if it yras the 
hallucination of an insane woman. 


Henriette. 289 

“Ah!” cried Reygnac, clenching his fist 
with rage, “why did I ever put my foot in 
Montescourt ? ” 

That evening he wrote Henriette simply a 
note saying: 

“ I will come to Fresnau at three o’clock to- 
morrow. Do not be offended if I express the 
desire to see you alone. You will understand, 
at the very first words, that it was necessary.” 

19 


2go 


Henriette . 


CHAPTER XXIII. 



HILST Loidreau’s niece was 
// far from guessing the 


truth, she felt, when 
reading these lines the 
next day — an astonish- 
ment that was not agreeable. Why this de- 
mand for a mysterious interview ? The cold- 
ness of the expressions in which he solicited 
it, did not announce anything romantic. If 
she could have done so, Henriette would have 
avoided the interview. She felt neither 
strength nor humor to brave certain situations* 
Madame de Reygnac was the only person that 
she would have been glad to see ; but, at the 
same time that the son’s note arrived, came 
one from the mother, lamenting the fifteen 
days’ delay in the result of the elections and an- 
nouncing that she herself would be detained 
for several days longer in the capital. 

When the clock struck three, Henriette 


Henriette. 


291 


Loidreau was alone at the entrance of the 
park, under the pretext of an order to be 
given to the gate-keeper. Almost at the same 
time the carriage which brought Gaston ap- 
peared, he stepped out of it before entering 
the grounds, and left it standing in the road. 

Rarely had he felt a more painful emotion 
than the one he was suffering from as he 
walked by the side of the young girl, under a 
covered walk, already stripped of half its foli- 
age. He sought for the best way to open the 
interview, the most delicate that had ever 
necessitated all the prudence of a gentleman. 

“Well!” said Henriette, astonished at the 
silence, “ all there is to do, is to begin again. 
Who would have believed that Magalas was so 
solid?” 

Gaston had hardly listened to the words that 
were spoken near him; but the sound of Hen- 
riette’s voice seemed to give him strength to 
broach the fatal subject. 

“Yesterday,” began he, “I went to Saint 
Pardoult ; I saw your mother.” 

A sad expression instantly came into the 
girl’s face. 

“Poor mamma!” said she sighing. “You 


292 


Henriette. 


have seen her? What destruction, is it not? 
What a desolate ruin of a being so good and 
devoted! Did she say anything to you? ” 

“"Yes! ” said Gaston; “and God is my wit- 
ness that I wish with all my heart I had not 
heard what she said.” 

Henriette’s pale face became livid; she 
asked herself if on this side, too, her repose 
was menaced by the fatal discovery. 

With an effort she stammered, “ They said 
that my mother would not speak to anybody.” 

“Oh! Dieu! continued Gaston without 
hearing her, “never was a man placed in a 
position as horrible as I find myself. Will you 
ever pardon me whatever happens, if I say 
more? If there was a person on this earth 
who would deliver me from this horrible night- 
mare, I would go to him, not to you, I swear 
it.” • 

“Speak then,” said Henriette, “but speak 
quickly. Do not make me suffer longer.” 

“Before your mother’s illness obliged you 
to separate her from the world, have you ever 
heard her make allusions 7” 

“Be more clear,” interrupted Henriette, 
wringing her hands. “ Once more, hurry.” 


Henriette. 


2 93 


“ God help me to be clear! One question 
only: Are you Felix's sister? ” 

“No,” said she stopping suddenly and look- 
ing her questioner in the eyes. “And was it 
to ask me this question that you came here? 
You, Monsieur de Reygnac, you?” 

In this moment, bewildered and stupefied 
by sorrow, losing the true idea of things, she 
thought of Perrin, and was astonished to think 
that this miserable scamp had a rival in in- 
famy. 

“ Listen to me,” replied Gaston. “ It is nec- 
essary that all should be explained before we 
part. If my mother has told the truth, we are 

in some sort of way engaged to each other ” 

“ Engaged to each other! ” exclaimed Hen- 
riette. “Your mother has said that we were 

Oh ! no, it is not possible ! ” 

“ She told me that you would give your 
hand to me, that I had only to take it ; I took it 
in fact; this is the real truth. But after what 
I heard at Saint Pardoult, how could I let 
you believe one hour longer? ” 

“ Enough, monsieur, I understand that you 
hesitate to finish the sentence, and I can with 
one gesture dismiss you before you complete 


294 Henriette. 

it. It will be easier for me, and for you also, 
without doubt, but I wish, before leaving here, 
you should at least leave your esteem. Ma- 
dame de Reygnac deceived herself, she saw 
my hand offered, perhaps ; but it was to call 
for an impossible salvation; not to drag her 
son into an abyss, that she could not suspect, 
poor woman! ” 

“ I will never forgive my mother,” said Gas- 
ton, “for bringing me to this, by her foolish 
precipitation.” 

“Believe me, monsieur, pardon her, I for- 
give her; I, the outrage that I have received 
on her account! For after all, you have, for 
twenty-four hours, accused me in your own 
mind of wishing to render myself culpable of 
an odious crime toward you. Will you have 
faith in my words, or must Madame de Rey- 
gnac clear me, by her testimony? Answer, 
shall I repeat in your presence the language I 
used to her, she has so misunderstood? ” 

“Ah! ” exclaimed Gaston, oppressed by the 
role that he so unwillingly played, “ I swear 
to you that I believe you! ” 

“ Listen to me then ; I said to your mother 
that I could not be your wife, that an insur- 


Henriette. 


2 95 


mountable barrier separated us. Was that 
not enough? Ought I to have told her the 
story, the true story that you have learned? 
Oh! Dieu! to think that it was my mother 
who told you this story! I must pardon her 
too, poor mamma! ” 

“ Heavens,’ 7 groaned the young man, “ say 
no more. Why did you not send me away 
without replying? ” 

“ What was the use! The evil was done. 
No, I have never thought of covering you with 
my shame ; I know too much of the laws of 
honor of our sexes; laws all powerful, very 
unequal. For you, Monsieur de Reygnac, you 
who shudder at the very thought that I might 
have become your wife. You are honor itself 
— -is it not so? I am stained, upon me a dark 
shadow has fallen. Such are our laws ! That 
is the reason why my father died suddenly, my 
mother became insane, and a scamp, master 
of my secret, tried to oblige me to marry 
him.”' 

“The wretch! I understand now, certain 
things that you said to me.” 

“ Perhaps also you will understand, that I 
have spoken to you now without reserve. At 


296 


Henriefte. 


least, I would save from the wreck the es- 
teem of an honest man, of a friend ! When I 
think that for several days you have consid- 
ered me your fiancee ! All my life I shall 
guard this souvenir as something precious. 
Ah! if you had been able to do, what God 
himself cannot, efface the past! With what 
joy, with what tender thankfulness I would 
have placed at your feet, all that I have, all 
that I am, all that which can exist, of good in 
me! To be the honored wife, loved perhaps, 
by a man like you! To kiss, on my bended 
knees, the hand which would have detached 
from me the heavy stone which drags me to 
the bottom of the abyss! It would have been 
a most beautiful dream, but the most impossi- 
ble that one could have ; I know it very well, 
I assure you ! ” 

Henriette talked with such an increasing 
exaltation that it frightened Gaston. What 
would he not have given to be able to calm, if 
only for an instant, this passionate grief! He 
said aloud what he had repeated many times 
to himself : 

“Mon Dieu! Why did I ever come to 
Montescourt? ” 


Henriette. 


297 


“ Do not lament too much,” said she gently. 
“ For three years I have asked myself why I 
went through a certain door, behind which was 
awaiting me a misfortune greater than any 
that could ever happen to you. Why? is the 
most useless of questions, when one asks it of 
fate. Now, adieu. If ever you think yourself 
unhappy, think of what you have just seen 
and heard.” 

She went away without a gesture, without 
looking back, walking with a rapid step and 
drawing her cloak about her as if she felt 
more keenly the cold wind of a rainy October 
day. 

Reygnac did not leave the place where he 
stood until Henriette had disappeared behind 
a clump of trees. Then he left the park, en- 
tered the carriage and took the road to the 
city. 

The next day he wrote to his mother: 

“ Do not make any observations or ask any 
questions about what I shall tell you. The 
marriage which you have had in view is im- 
possible. Do not think of leaving Paris ; I shall 
be there myself the next day after the election 
by second ballot. When there, I ask of you, 


298 


IJenriette. 


with your usual ability, to find me some posi- 
tion, anywhere out of Europe; the farthest 
possible. If possible, I will go to fight the 
Turks, sooner than not to leave.” 


Henriette . 


299 


CHAPTER XXIV. 



HEY were preparing for the 
second balloting at Montes- 
court, but everybody knew 
what the result would be. De • 
ception was no longer possible ; the 
attempt had miscarried. If this 
barbarous word was part of the 
French vocabulary, one would have 
«, said that already the 16th of May 
1 * was a “ Krach.” 

The sudden change of mind accomplished 
with such rapidity in our country, offers strik- 
ing examples. Among the large number of 
employes and officers who scented the change 
of wind, and worked to change sides, if there 
was time, if not, to manage to get out of it as 
well as possible, Gaston de Reygnac could 
make curious studies upon the greatness of 
characters and the independence of con- 
sciences, 


3 °° 


Henriette. 


When he went into the street, people avoided 
him ; those who a week before bowed to the 
ground before him, made clever dodges or 
went into shops so as not to ruin themselves 
by raising their hats to him on their way. 

In his office, he only saw Lefevre, but it 
was a new Lefevre, cold, formal, with the rigid 
bearing of a hospital nurse .pouring the last 
bowl of tea for a consumptive near his end. 

Now, nobody asked any favor of him; it 
would be time lost. They waited for his suc- 
cessor. With an irony that they thought in- 
finitely cutting, some under-officers that had 
been discharged by him took great pleasure 
in sending him their cards. 

Loidreau still struggled, but lijce a general 
who sees both wings of his army give away, he 
felt that defeat was before him. On the right, 
Perrin had betrayed him, on the left, the Ad- 
ministration was henceforth without arms. 

So nobody was surprised after the second 
balloting to know that Magalas had won. 
That evening Reygnac had nobody in his office 
while he received the results of the voting. A 
servant was sent on horseback from Fresnau 
to carry the news of the definite defeat of his 


Henriette. 


3 QI 


master. Thus ended the 16th of May at 
Montescourt. 

It was one o’clock in the morning when 
Gaston wrote and sent this telegram to the 
prefet and the minister: 

“ Magalas (opposition) elected.” 

In writing these three words he performed 
the last act of his life as sous-prefet ; hence 
forth he was free. His chief, in an official 
letter, had permitted him to absent himself 
“ for family reasons ” as soon as the ballot was 
counted. In twenty-four hours he would have 
said adieu to Montescourt for always, and to 
all who had filled his existence for four 
months; to Lefevre, to the licenses for drink, 
to Magalas, to the articles in the Democrat , to 
Loidreau, to Henriette, and to Sabine. 

The last one, to tell the truth, was the only 
one whom it was a trial to leave. Before 
leaving — for the end of the world perhaps — he 
wished to see her again, to carry away her pic- 
ture, as a traveller carries, on returning from 
an excursion, the sketch of a landscape which 
has pleased most of all, and where in his 
dreams he has established his home, 


3° 2 


Henriette. 


Could he have the conceit to go again to 
Barjols? With what face could he accost this 
young girl? Could he expect to have from 
her, anything but a cold compassion, if not 
colored with irony ? Three weeks before, he 
had almost repulsed her! 

He had taken particular pains to tell her 
that he loved only her in this world, but that 
he was going to marry another richer. 

He had explained why, by discouragement, 
by weariness, finally to stop the complaints of 
his mother, for whom money was everything, 
and whom he had helped to render poor. 

Hereafter, Sabine was dead for him. His 
career also was dead, dead in its youth ! 
Everything had collapsed, and if his mother 
did remain, it was a mother with whom he had 
not the courage to live until forgiveness had 
commenced its work. 

Go then, Reygnac ! en route for Aden, Mada- 
gascar, or Bankok! 

In the dark night, all was silent, no noise 
in the city save at some distance in a faubourg 
the faint echo of the national hymn, shouted 
by the treacherous voices of a band of patriots. 


Henriette. 


3°3 


Suddenly, from the tower of the old church 
which rose above the trees in the garden, one 
heard the bell ring. Is it striking the hour? 
No, for it has just struck midnight. Sud- 
denly, at the same moment the sinister call 
of the bugler sounded in the neighboring 
street. It is the alarm for fire. At Montes- 
court, thank God! the alarm for a riot was 
never heard. 

“ Ma foi ! ” thought Reygnac, “ I am no 
longer sous-prefet. No matter, it shall not be 
said that they put out the fire without my 
presence, the last night of my reign.” 

He took a cloak and went out to learn 
where the fire was. As he reached the gate, 
Bongrand, Commissioner of Police, put his 
hand on the bell. 

“ Monsieur le sous-prefet,” said he recogniz- 
ing his chief by his voice, “ I have come to tell 
you that the fire is at Barjols ” 

A quarter of an hour later, Gaston left the 
city at full speed on his hired nag. Already, 
upon the road he could distinguish a swarm of 
shadows, hardly recognizable. They walked 
along quietly, discussing the importance of this 


3 ° 4 


Henriette. 


disaster. They were the curious ones who 
went with their wives to view the fire from the 
first prominence. The firemen were running 
two by two, with elbows pressed to the body, 
without speaking, vests upon their arms, neck 
rigid to preserve the equilibrium of their hats, 
and in the darkness, the curious ones, less 
zealous, amused themselves in guessing the 
names of those who passed, going to spend 
the night at the fire, while they, themselves, 
would be buried under their soft blankets in 
an hour. 

In the first village that Gaston passed 
through, the bugle, drum, and bells were mak- 
ing noise enough to raise the dead, although 
every man, woman, and child in the village 
were up and stirring. In the country it is 
considered a token of neighborly interest to 
make as much noise as possible at a fire. 

After an hour’s fast riding, Reygnac saw, at 
a turn of the road, the fire in all its fury. It 
was at Barjols, but he breathed freer when he 
saw at some distance from the fire the black 
mass of trees in the park and the slate roof of 
the chateau shining by the reflection of the 



“ The fire broke out at midnight.” 


30 






3°6 


Henriette. 


flames; to the right, the dark lines of houses 
extended, pierced to the very centre by the 
bright flames, through which the triangles of 
the gable ends joined to the blackened beams 
showed off like the letters in a comic alphabet. 
The streets were inundated, the two files of 
people extending to the river consisted of 
women, children, and old men, with empty 
buckets ; able-bodied men with full ones. The 
fire engines, as close as possible to the fire, 
threw their jets with the regular sound of the 
machine, worked by the fire-men, who bent 
down and rose up, without relaxation, speech- 
less, panting, with bare chests ; while their cap- 
tains cried, “Courage, boys! work steadily! ” 
They saved the cattle before all the rest, 
before the old men and children, for these 
could be gotten out easier; scattered about 
the fields, the frightened animals stood still, 
with extended necks, and filled the air with 
their bellowing; other cries, human voices, 
replied to this mournful concert. It was the 
poor peasants who, seated in a corner of the 
devastated garden, groaned upon the an- 
nouncement of their broken furniture, and hid 


Henriette. 


3°7 

their heads in their aprons that they might not 
see all that remained of their homes burn. 

Suddenly in all this crowd, a rumor circu- 
lated: 

“ The sous-prefet has come ! ” 

Gaston de Reygnac, preceded by a police 
officer, who made a passageway for him y ap- 
proached the place the most threatened, not 
so much to see as to be seen, and to encour- 
age those who were working. In the thickest 
of the tumult he found Raoul de Barjols, 
who set the example, and bravely exposed 
himself. 

“You here!” exclaimed the marquis with- 
out stopping. “ I think the fire will not extend 
farther now; but since you have come, go to 
the chateau and busy yourself with a poor 
fellow who fell into the fire and was taken out 
with great trouble. I had him taken to our 
house, but do not know how he is. Go, I 
must stay here.” 

Guided still by the policeman, Reygnac 
went to the chateau, which appeared deserted, 
only that all the doors were open. He en- 
tered the vestibule, lighted by one little lamp, 


3°8 


Henriette. 


then into a room at the end of which he saw 
a light. At last, he entered the drawing-room ; 
there upon a sofa which Gaston knew well, the 
wounded man was extended, just as they had 
placed him, not long before. His black beard 
stood out in relief against the mortal pallor 
of his face, and through the opening of his 
coarse linen shirt, burned in places, one could 
see his burned chest. 

On her knees at his right, a nun felt his 
pulse, and fixed the calm look of a woman 
used to seeing suffering, upon the face of the 
man. On the other side, Sabine, clothed in 
a white wool dressing gown, was stirring a 
drink upon a table. She turned at the sound 
of Reygnac’s steps, then advanced quickly, 
making a reflector with her hand to see in the 
dark. 

“Ah! it is you,” said she. “ I thought you 
would come.” 

“ It is I, your brother sent me here. Are 
you alone? ” 

“ Everybody is at the fire, and I insisted 
that my mother should not rise. This poor 
man is very badly injured. He remained for 


Henriette . 


309 


a long time in a faint, in the smoke, and has 
not regained consciousness. Ah! This fire- 
engine that I was in such a hurry to have! 
Here is its inauguration ! ” 

Reygnac placed his ear on the man’s heart ; 
he listened a long time, while Sabine returned 
to her bottles. 

Suddenly Gaston rose and said in a low 
voice : 

“He is dead!” 

“I feared so,” said the nun quietly, “for 
some time his pulse has not beat. And the 
priest is absent from the parish ! ” 

Sabine abandoned her useless preparations 
and came nearer to the poor man. 

“Are you sure that he is dead?” said 
she. 

Gaston replied by a sign that he was sure. 

Then Mademoiselle de Barjols with a pious 
care, crossed the coarse cloth upon the dead 
man’s chest and joined his hands together. 
Then she knelt, and with eyes wet with tears 
of compassion, she commenced the prayer for 
the dead, to which on the other side the nun 
responded. 


3 TO 


Henriette. 


The policeman had left to find somebody to 
remove the body, Reygnac upright, could not 
take his eyes off from Sabine’s face, lighted 
by the double halo of goodness and charity — 
two powerful attractions in woman. With 
her hands joined, head bent, the severe lines 
of her white woollen robe, her beautiful blonde 
hair done up hastily at the first sound of the 
alarm, she would have won the heart of the 
most indifferent of men. Her fervent and 
melodious voice modulated with a plaintive 
tenderness “the sweet prayer of death” and 
would have made a heart of stone vibrate. 

Reygnac’s heart was much inclined to 
soften. 

He looked at Sabine as he had never looked 
before; for the first time he felt that he un- 
derstood her and that he must say “good-by” 
to her. 

“ What will be my last hour? ” thought he. 
“ Shall I ever think of this poor devil, who left 
the world cried over by this angel, without 
envy? Ah! what a dream! to live on earth 
assisted by this generous hand, to die consoled 
by that voice.” 


Henriette . 


3il 

The last words were being spoken by the 
two women. When Sabine arose, the prayer 
finished, she heard, like an echo behind her, 
Gaston, who replied in a singularly grave voice, 

“ Amen ! ” 

At this moment, they looked at each other, 
they understood that their thoughts were re- 
united' far from earth, where all ends so 
quickly, upon the threshold of the world of 
souls, where nothing is ended, not even love, 
which ends too soon elsewhere. 

While the sister covered the face of the 
dead man with a white cloth, Gaston ap- 
proached Mademoiselle de Barjols. 

“ Adieu, ” said he to her, in a low voice. 
“You do not need me, I will return to the 
fire.” 

“ Come back with Raoul when all is over, 
to rest and refresh yourself. It will be day- 
light soon. What a night it has been ! ” 

“I shall not be able to return; I leave for 
Paris to-day. Singular chance of fate ! With- 
out this disaster, which caused the death of 
this man, God knows when I should have seen 
you again.” 


3 12 


Henriette. 


Sabine lowered her eyes, believing that the 
allusion concerned the approaching marriage 
of the Count de Reygnac. She did not know 
of the lamentable incident which had broken 
it, if one can speak of breaking a marriage 
so far from ever being consummated. 

“ My sincere prayers will accompany you,” 
said she, in the same quiet voice that she 
had used when reading the prayers for the 
dead. 

“ I fear that y ur prayers will have a long 
way to go ; I will tell you, you are destined to 
hear the first news concerning me — I will tell 
you that I leave the administration, before it 
leaves me. After our yesterday’s exploits, I 
do not feel very secure ; I go to take a less 
pleasant situation, and without doubt, far 
away from my friends and France.” 

“But,” said she, paler at these words than 
at any time when near the dead man, “ I 
thought you told me ” 

“ That I was to be married. It was a mis- 
take; I made another that same day. One 
must pay for their errors. You remember a 
faded flower that I wished to keep, a fresh 


Henriette. 


3i3 


rose full of perfume that I did not wish to 
take? It is the emblem of all my life. Who 
knows what might have been, had I listened 
to my heart, had I taken the rose? Who 
knows if the sweet creature who offered it had 
not ended by granting .me something more — 
some day? ” 

A movement of Sabine’s made Gaston think 
that he had offended her by this language. 

“ Pardon me, I ought not only to respect 
you, but the dead; but in face of death, one 
understands what life is, and speaks the truth, 
and then, soon I shall be far away. Ah! I 
swear to you now, that I envy that man, lying 
in eternal rest, sleeping the last sleep, whose 
eyes have been closed by your hands. Give 
them to me, those holy hands, that I may kiss 
them once more. Now adieu! ” 

He went out very slowly, seeking to prolong 
this supreme moment. He was already in the 
vestibule, accompanied by Sabine, who, no less 
affected, could hardly speak a word. 

“ Oh ! Mon Dieu ! ” said she at last, “ what 
pain you give me! ” 

He looked at her once more, their eyes ex- 


3i4 


Henriette. 


pressed without reserve, at that moment, what 
their lips would not say. Gaston still walked 
on; he reached the outside door; only three 
steps and fate would separate them forever. 
Suddenly Sabine’s pure face was covered with 
a bright blush. Her resigned expression gave 
place to resolute will ; she had to decide upon 
her future happiness. Upon a table stood a 
vase of flowers that she had gathered the night 
before, without suspecting that these fragrant 
blossoms would serve the next day to seal her 
fate. With a trembling hand she took a rose 
and approaching Gaston handed it to him with- 
out saying a word. 

“Ah!” said he falling on one knee, “this 
time I take it ! Dear Sabine ! I prayed with 
you a few moments ago. Before God who 
has heard me, I give my life to you.” 

He arose and his lips rested upon the fore- 
head of the one whom he was to call his wife. 
Almost at the same moment, they heard steps 
in the court, and the Marquis de Barjols ap- 
peared, soaked from head to foot, covered 
with mud, his face and hands black with smoke. 

“Well!” said he, wiping his forehead, “is 


Henriette. 


3i5 


this what you call putting out a fire? You 
take good care of yourselves! Fortunately, we 
did not need your assistance.” 

Turning toward his sister, he asked — 

“ How is the man? ” 

“ He is dead,” said Gaston gravely. “ But 
this world is full of mysterious links ; this night, 
which has taken this poor fellow’s life, has 
given to me a new one. It has cost you a 
sister, but you have gained a brother.” 

“Ah! so much the better!” exclaimed 
Raoul throwing himself on his friend’s neck. 
“ I was beginning to find you both stupid. 
You have come to your senses at last, and I 
am content.” 

* * * * * * * 
To-day, Gaston is in a strange country, 
working courageously, but his post is not far 
from the frontier, and every year he comes to 
Barjols with Sabine and their two children. 

The Countess de Reygnac, dowager, died 
the year following her son’s marriage. Almost 
at the same time, the poor insane Madame 
Loidreau was freed from the miseries of her 
sad life. 


3 l6 


Henriette. 


By her side in the churchyard, a second 
mound is marked by a headstone 
bearing the inscription “ Henriette 
Loidreau.” 

The new deputy is named Jules 
Perrin ; he is a radical millionaire, 
and is the guardian of Felix, who 
is ten years old, and who begs to 
be sent to college. 

People wondered why Jules Per- 
rin should be given control of the 

























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